The job interview question you don't have to answer
While UK employers are legally permitted to ask job candidates about their salary history, experts and advocacy groups suggest applicants are not obligated to answer. The practice is being phased out in the EU to promote pay equity, though the UK currently relies on voluntary transparency measures.
Why it matters
The debate over salary history questions is central to efforts to close gender and racial pay gaps in the modern workforce.
Figure caption, Watch: How much is your salary?
Cost of living correspondent Published 5 October 2026, 00:22 BST Prepare all you like, but there is often still one job interview question that leaves you feeling uncomfortable.
While employers in the UK are within their rights to ask you how much you get paid in your current role, applicants are not obliged to tell them.
Recruiters have been encouraged to stop posing questions about salary history and, in the EU, new rules will prevent them doing so.
But in the UK, there is still a chance of it coming up, so how best should you answer?
Sometimes it feels like interviewers, and interviewees, tip-toe around the subject of money.
Also covering this story
One other newsroom covered this event. We read that version too.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in