In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever applied for a job and been greeted with the words "competitive salary," the prime minister is telling UK firms to start publishing pay details in job adverts now - rather than waiting for the new law that will soon force them to do so anyway. The government is planning to make salary disclosure compulsory in adverts, with legislation being brought forward "as soon as possible."

The rationale is refreshingly straightforward: it will help jobseekers, particularly those applying for their first job, and could help prevent pay discrimination. One industry group, however, has countered that setting pay is a complex process and that regulating adverts is not always suitable - a position roughly equivalent to arguing that menus are complicated, so restaurants shouldn't have to list prices.

The announcement comes a week after the UK's equality watchdog said employees should legally be able to find out what their colleagues are earning. The Cabinet Office launched a consultation into pay and reducing discrimination in the summer, and the government said there had been "overwhelming support" for greater transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move. For those keeping score, that is not a slim majority; that is a mandate with a rounding error.

"Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it," Andy Burnham said.

The government framed the move as part of attempts to reduce the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training - known as "Neet" - ahead of the final report of the Milburn Review into youth inactivity, which is due in the coming weeks. Publishing salary details upfront could "expose unjustified differences in pay, give workers greater confidence to challenge discrimination and prevent disagreements over pay escalating into disputes," according to the government.

The proposals echo measures being introduced in the European Union, where employers will have to disclose the initial pay or range for new roles, either in a published job advert or before an interview. Britain, evidently, would like to be in that club too.

And there is clearly room for improvement. According to data from UK jobs website Adzuna, 51% of the adverts on its site in September had salary information - but the proportion has been falling in recent years. Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said being open about pay "should be the norm, not the exception," adding that employers who put a salary on a job advert "attract more applicants, and better-suited ones." A radical concept: telling people what a job pays makes them want it more.

Previous research from the CIPD, an industry body for human resources managers, has indicated that the public sector and charities are more likely to reveal pay information than private firms, while pay ranges were more common than specific salaries. But it found not all employers were "fully transparent," with pay ranges sometimes wider than £10,000 - a band so broad it could describe almost any job in the country.

CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry said that while, in principle, giving salary details was "a good thing," in practice it was "more complicated." "There isn't always a single fixed figure, and employers will want to set pay based on a candidate's skills, experience and potential," he said, adding that drafting job adverts is "best left to good employer practice rather than government regulation."

Last week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said publishing salaries in job adverts would be a "positive step." It also said bosses should be required to respond to questionnaires about colleagues' pay to cut pay discrimination. At present, employers do not have to respond to employee requests for salary information about their co-workers. The EHRC further said employers should be prevented from asking about current salary when offering a job, to stop a history of discrimination from continuing. Employers in the UK are currently allowed to ask how much you get paid in your current role, though applicants are under no obligation to tell them.

The government has said it will set out further details on what information will be required and how the legislation will be enforced "in due course" - a phrase that has never once been used to signal urgency, but which we are assured means it's coming.