Is the trend of recent pay increases reversing?

With a previously tight labor market over the last few years, many fortunate jobseekers saw increases in pay when hired to a new role. Many employers saw competition for a war on talent within the tight labor market and—to the benefit of many jobseekers—offered sign-on bonuses or increased salary as a way to keep up with the competition. But is that trend slowing, or even perhaps, reversing?

According to the recent data collected and analyzed by the online job board ZipRecruiter, that appears to be the case. Recently, ZipRecruiter analyzed year-over-year changes in pay posted for more than 20,000 online job ads. Per this analysis, it found that the average pay posted for more job titles declined more than it increased so far in 2023. However, last year, the opposite was true in that three- quarters of the jobs posted in 2022 offered increased pay as compared to the previous year in 2021.

With what appears to be a new shift, pay transparency becomes increasingly important to ensure that candidates are receiving the appropriate and similar pay for a particular role—not arbitrary numbers from one month to the next. When shifts such as these occur within the labor market, it is important for candidates to have increased access to information in order to better advocate for themselves and make the right decisions in their career.

Here at Clear-Salary, we will continue monitoring this trend and doing our part to increase pay transparency for all.