In an op-ed published by PR Week, Atalanta CEO, Elizabeth Ames, argues that the UK Government’s proposed legislation to mandate salaries on job advertisements should be welcomed by the PR industry as the quickest and easiest way to close its stubborn gender pay gap. Reflecting on her own experience of discovering that a male replacement was paid £20,000 a year more for the exact same role, she highlights the very real cost of opaque salaries.
Despite women comprising around 60% of the UK’s PR workforce, the industry continues to lag behind on pay parity. Elizabeth points out that the PRCA estimated the mean gender pay gap across PR stood at 17% in 2025, significantly higher than the UK-wide average of 11%. Yet, PR Week data shows that only 4% of the top 50 agencies currently include salaries on job advertisements.
"There is only so much that mentoring programs and advice to lean in can do without hard data to support pay negotiations," Elizabeth writes. Her analysis identifies several critical reasons why salary transparency is a necessity for the sector:
Compounding inequality: Pay gaps often start early in careers when a lack of publicly available salary information leads women to ask for and receive less than their male colleagues. This disparity compounds over time, as future salaries are frequently based on previous ones.
Hypocrisy in messaging: While PR professionals spend a vast amount of time advising clients on diversity, ESG, and corporate purpose, agencies are failing to apply these transparency principles to their own job adverts.
Business inefficiencies: A lack of pay transparency wastes the time and effort of job seekers and recruiters, driving frustration over mismatched expectations.
Impact on smaller firms: Opaque salaries can directly harm smaller agencies, as strong candidates are less likely to apply for roles where compensation is undisclosed.
Elizabeth makes a compelling case that while agencies should ideally act in their own best interest, recent data suggests many are actually going backwards on pay transparency and gender pay gaps. If the PR industry genuinely wants to retain top female talent and build an equitable future, she argues, it is time to retire the phrase "competitive salary" and put an actual number on the advert.
Read the full article here and see all of Atalanta's value-driven employee benefits here.
