The charity sector has a diversity issue and it is undermining our impact. The moral case for greater diversity, equity and inclusion in our sector is clear. It is part and parcel of our commitment to social justice. There is also good evidence behind the business case—diverse teams are more creative, smarter, healthier and less biased.

Yet our sector shows little progress. At NPC, we are making efforts to improve our inclusivity while supporting others to do the same. But we are grappling with the same uncertainties as many others in the sector and we know we still have a huge amount to do ourselves.

Tackling this is hard because issues like unconscious biases, imbalances of power and privilege, and pay disparities are layered and complex. However, there is one basic enabler of inequities that organisations can tackle right now—jobs adverts being published without transparent salaries.

Show The Salary explains how salary secrecy is a discriminatory practice that perpetuates pay gaps—hitting women and Black candidates the hardest. Hiding salaries prevents people from applying for roles and it means that people often cannot access a fair wage when it comes to salary negotiations. For example, women who attempt to negotiate their pay are less likely to be successful than their male counterparts.

When organisations hide salaries on job adverts, a candidate’s previous salary is often taken into account—yet evidence shows that when asking for a candidates current or previous salary was banned, pay increased for Black candidates by 13% and for women by 8%.

Disclosing salaries on job adverts is one small but effective change that all organisations can make to help close pay gaps and start to tackle issues of power and privilege in our sector.

Read the full article about the Show The Salary campaign by Michelle Man at NPC.