Businesses should publish salaries in job adverts now, the prime minister is telling firms, rather than wait for a new law to come in that will force them to do so.

The government is planning to make pay details compulsory in adverts, with legislation on the issue being brought forward “as soon as possible”.

It argues the change will help jobseekers, particularly those applying for their first job, and could help prevent pay discrimination. However, one industry group said setting pay was a complex process and regulating adverts was not always suitable.

It comes a week after the UK’s equality watchdog said employees should legally be able to find out what their colleagues are earning.

The Cabinet Office launched a consultation into pay and reducing discrimination in the summer, and the government said there had been “overwhelming support” for greater transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move.

“Whether you’re a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it,” Andy Burnham said.

The government said the move was part of attempts to reduce the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training – or “Neet” – ahead of the final report of the Milburn Review into youth inactivity, which is due in the coming weeks.

Publishing salary details upfront could “expose unjustified differences in pay, give workers greater confidence to challenge discrimination and prevent disagreements over pay escalating into disputes”.

The proposals are similar to measures being introduced in the European Union., external

Employers in Europe will have to disclose the initial pay or range for new roles, which must either be included in a published job advert or shared before an interview.

According to data from UK jobs website Adzuna, external, 51% of the adverts on its site in September had salary information, but the proportion has been falling in recent years.

Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said being open about pay “should be the norm, not the exception”.

He added that employers who put a salary on a job advert “attract more applicants, and better-suited ones”.

Previous research from the CIPD, external, an industry body for human resources managers, has indicated that the public sector and charities are more likely to reveal pay information that private firms, while pay ranges were more common than specific salaries.

But it found not all employers were “fully transparent”, with pay ranges sometimes wider than £10,000.

CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry said that while, in principle, giving salary details was “a good thing”, in practice it was “more complicated”.

“There isn’t always a single fixed figure, and employers will want to set pay based on a candidate’s skills, experience and potential.”

Carberry added the process was complex, saying that drafting job adverts is “best left to good employer practice rather than government regulation”.

The government has said it will set out further details on what information will be required and how the legislation will be enforced “in due course”.

Last week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said publishing salaries in job adverts would be a “positive step”.

It also said bosses should be required to respond to questionnaires about colleagues’ pay to cut pay discrimination.

At present, employers do not have to respond to employee requests for salary information about their co-workers.

The EHRC also said employers should be prevented from asking about current salary when offering a job to stop a history of discrimination from continuing.

Employers in the UK are currently allowed to ask you how much you get paid in your current role, but applicants are under no obligation to tell them.