‘I Know What You Make’

Companies are sharing salary ranges with job candidates. They’re also getting much more specific on the responsibilities and skills a given role entails. They’re doing this to prepare for pay-transparency rules both in the United States and Europe.

What they might not be doing so well, experts say, is getting ready for a potential flood of questions and disputes once everyone knows what everyone else is earning. According to a new Korn Ferry survey in Europe, nearly 30% of companies say they will, if they don't already, internally communicate the salary bands for roles—which experts say could be a recipe for conflict for both EU firms and US multinationals doing business there.

“There’s going to be jealousy, disenfranchisement, and demands from all corners,” says Dan Kaplan, a Korn Ferry senior client partner in the firm’s Chief Human Resources Officers practice. In short, he says, such disclosures could lead to decreased employee cooperation, anger at management, and an uptick in quits.

Pay transparency has become a more pressing issue for companies as governments on both sides of the Atlantic require increased disclosure, particularly for open jobs. This upcoming bonus season will be the first time many US-based employees will see, via job postings, how much their bosses are willing to pay for roles similar to theirs. In the EU, where new transparency rules go into effect in early 2026, pay is also on the minds of many.

Most firms claim that they’re working on it. In the Korn Ferry Europe survey, the two biggest pay-transparency challenges they cited were “defining work of equal value” and “employee communications.” But while more than 70% of organizations believe that the new rules will have repercussions for them, fewer than 10% of them say they’re well prepared for it. “There needs to be some sort of urgency,” says Vijay Gandhi, regional director for Korn Ferry Digital.

To be sure, experts say there’s evidence that the workforce’s youngest generation has fewer qualms about pay transparency; older generations have historically considered such discussion taboo. But Gen-Z employees, along with many younger millennials, also have shown a greater willingness to raise issues of fairness—perceived or otherwise—than older workers have. “When they see a little bit of unfairness in the organization, they question it and why they should be part of the organization,” says Gandhi.

That means managers will need to be ready for questions from employees who’ve realized that they’re on the low end of a job’s pay range. There also will be broader questions raised by employees and managers about strategy and principles, says Tom McMullen, leader in Korn Ferry’s North America Total Rewards expertise group. “Companies will need to give line managers a credible and consistent case to make for their pay ranges,” he says.

The transparency provisions, even the stricter ones in Europe, don’t require disclosing exact salaries. But as companies create specific pay bands for specific roles and disclose salary ranges for advertised positions, existing employees won’t need to do much detective work to figure out who’s getting paid what. The EU’s regulations, which require many companies to disclose average salaries for roles by gender, will make the task even easier. “That will create more accountability around the leader,” says Dennis Deans, vice president of Korn Ferry’s Global Human Resources business. “They’ll have to explain why roles are paid the way they are.”

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