Employers are quick to accuse Gen Z workers of poor etiquette within the workplace, but what about the secretive games that employers play with prospective hires? Gen Zers recently admitted to ghosting employers regularly, and before you jump to the conclusion that they’re unprofessional, there’s a good reason for this particular trend.
Gen Z workers want salary transparency in job postings, and when employers refuse to be forthcoming with the details, many decide to ghost them. Gen Z’s work behavior can be quite alarming at times, what with their decision to stream shows during work or ghost employers just to feel “in charge” of their careers. We can’t entirely absolve them of all the blame for the strained relationship between their generation and that of employers, however, when it comes to pay transparency, honesty is inarguably the best policy.
Is it acceptable for Gen Z to ghost employers over the lack of information on pay? Many think it is. (Image: Pexels)
Gen Z Is Ghosting Employers for Refusing to Disclose the Pay Scale for a Role
Recently, Monster’s 2025 State of the Graduate Report showed that 44% of Gen Z college graduates were willing to terminate a job application process if the salary range was undisclosed. For these Gen Z workers, ghosting employers was not an issue if that’s what it took to show that they were unsatisfied with the secrecy around hiring.
Salary transparency or pay transparency has become a very central concept in the conversation surrounding hiring in recent years. Some states like Illinois and Minnesota have enforced regulations that require all employers to provide a salary range on job postings. This ensures that candidates know what to expect from that position right from the start.
Employers in states without mandates have also begun to share the salary range for an open position as a gesture of good faith, but not all organizations have been as accommodating.
Why Are Employers So Reluctant to Disclose Pay Scales?
If Gen Z’s salary demands are so central to their applications, why don’t employers just disclose how much they are willing to pay for a role? There are many reasons for this, but it all comes down to maintaining an edge over competitors. Once employers start disclosing pay, applicants will naturally gravitate towards job postings that offer a better salary. This will require employers to start offering more competitive pay and benefits to employees.
Similarly, if prospective candidates don’t know what the average pay is for a role at the organization, they are likely to settle for a lower salary instead of negotiating a better offer. This way, employers can hire different candidates for similar positions without having to equalize pay.
These practices may not sound ideal, but they are standard across roles and industries. Gen Z workers are more open about expressing their expectations from employers clearly, so it’s no surprise that fresh graduates are going after jobs that are honest about what they can earn.
Career Catfishing Brings the Blame Back Onto Gen Z
We’re certain that more employers ghost employees than the other way around—the larger majority of applicants only hear back from a small percentage of employers they apply to. It’s also true that Gen Z have a good reason for ghosting employers over salary transparency in job postings. All that said, Gen Z aren’t innocent either.
Of the many reasons why Gen Z ghosts employers, we also have a new job trend of “career catfishing.” What this means is that some Gen Zers—87% of the respondents to Indeed’s survey of UK workers—actually sit through the entire recruitment process, sign their contracts, and then choose not to show up for work.
Career catfishing is not exclusive to Gen Z as millennials admit to doing it too, but the younger candidates are more likely to indulge in the practice. This is obviously a terrible thing to do after everything has been set up in preparation for their arrival.
Why Are Workers Turning to Career Catfishing?
Why do they do it? Because it helps them “feel in charge of their careers.” One young Gen Z worker told us why they’ve resorted to such practices in the past, “It’s disrespectful you know? Making us wait for months for a simple email only to take it back the next day and then come back with a worse offer on the third because a candidate they picked rejected them.”
“Instead of doing better, they just try to convince us to settle. I got a better offer a week before starting and so I simply didn’t show up. I’m still working with the company that chose to be honest with me from the start, and I like it here,” he concluded.
Employers are not innocent of this trend—many make offers and never follow up with hopeful candidates, choosing to silently stop hiring for the role or handing the position to someone else. Both sides are guilty of creating a messy space for earnest job hunters looking for work, and in 2025, this needs to change.
The Bottom Line: Gen Z’s Salary Transparency Demands Are Not Unrealistic
Whether it’s Gen Z ghosting employers for their many reasons or employers constantly doing the same to them at multiple stages during the hiring process, both need to change their approach. It is fair for Gen Z workers to expect salary transparency regarding future jobs so they can make a decision that best suits them instead of wasting their time and that of their employers. If workers are unsatisfied with their pay, they will keep looking for a job even after accepting your offer, so there is little reason to continue to keep the pay scale under the wraps.
Employers who put up job postings need to ensure that the guidelines for the role are clear and up-to-date, and they also include all the details relevant to the position. It also doesn’t hurt to be proactive and set up a system to get back to candidates, even if it is to tell them that you’ve decided to pick someone else for a role. A clean break is always best.
Gen Z Need to Stop Ghosting Employers and Start Communicating
Gen Z candidates need to alter their work behavior to communicate the problem clearly instead of resorting to ghosting. If Gen Z grads tell the employers that they want these details at the start of the process, they may be able to learn more about the pay during the next interview.
If enough of them inform employers that they will step back from the recruitment process due to the lack of transparency, employers may eventually have no choice but to be more open with them or other future candidates. Ghosting has never led to anything good, whether you look at relationships or the hiring process, so we need to work on changing how we communicate right now.
What do you think about Gen Z’s habit of ghosting employers over the lack of pay transparency? Let us know. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insight into the minds of the young, decisive, and ambitious Gen Z workforce.