Four in ten UK hiring managers are offering salaries above their planned ranges to secure candidates with specialist skills, according to research showing that employers are becoming more selective about where they increase pay.
The findings come from the 2027 UK Salary Guide published by Robert Half, which examines hiring and compensation across six professional fields, including finance, technology, marketing, human resources and legal services.
Among hiring managers offering salaries above their planned ranges, 72% cite specialist skills as a reason. Across the hiring-manager survey, 32% report paying more for professionals with generative AI capabilities, while 53% expect their compensation budgets to increase during 2027.
The findings suggest that employers are concentrating additional spending on positions they consider difficult to fill or particularly important to their operations. That approach differs from broad increases across an entire workforce and may allow organisations to compete for essential skills while limiting overall employment costs.
Robert Half’s salary forecasts indicate that some occupations could receive above-average increases in 2027. Qualified financial accountants in financial services are projected to see starting salaries rise by 4.9%, while ERP functional consultants are expected to see a 4.2% increase and talent acquisition partners a 4.1% rise.
Other occupations expected to experience relatively strong starting salary growth include security network engineers, back-end developers, digital marketing specialists and certain legal positions.
The figures concern projected starting salaries for people entering roles, rather than automatic pay increases for existing employees. They should therefore be interpreted as indicators of recruitment costs and market demand, not forecasts of the overall growth in average earnings.
Demand for expertise associated with AI and enterprise technology is creating particular competition. Businesses introducing automated processes, upgrading financial systems or expanding their digital operations may require specialists whose capabilities are sought by employers in several industries.
That competition can make established salary bands difficult to maintain. An employer may need to offer more than originally budgeted to attract a candidate, while also considering whether the decision creates inconsistencies with remuneration for existing staff.
Greater transparency is adding another dimension to pay management. Robert Half reports that 78% of hiring managers already include or plan to include salary ranges in job advertisements.
Separately, 82% of surveyed companies are reviewing or intend to review salaries for parity, while 73% use or plan to use external market information to benchmark compensation.
Among respondents reporting benefits from pay transparency, 42% identify higher-quality candidate pools, 41% more efficient salary negotiations and 22% shorter recruitment processes. These findings reflect employers’ reported experiences rather than independently established outcomes across the wider labour market.
Publishing salary ranges can help applicants assess whether a vacancy meets their expectations before applying. For employers, however, greater transparency also makes disparities between advertised salaries and existing pay arrangements more visible.
Salary increases are not the only means of competing for candidates. Thirty per cent of surveyed professionals identify family and caregiving benefits as the leading incentive that would encourage them to consider changing jobs.
Employers report providing support such as childcare assistance and, in some cases, reproductive health benefits. These arrangements form part of a broader employment offer in which flexibility, career development and personal circumstances can influence whether candidates accept or remain in a role.
Robert Half’s non-salary research is based on an online survey of 1,500 UK respondents, comprising 500 hiring managers and 1,000 workers. Findings about employer decisions are drawn from the hiring-manager respondents, while employee preferences come from the worker group.
The salary benchmarks use a separate methodology, drawing on compensation from Robert Half placements and external job-posting data. The guide analyses more than 365,000 salaries to inform projected starting pay across different occupations and locations.
The resulting picture is of a labour market where employers continue to scrutinise spending but are prepared to make exceptions for scarce capabilities. As 2027 budgets are finalised, maintaining consistent pay structures while attracting specialists is likely to remain a significant workforce planning challenge.
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