# How to Write a Job Ad: Structure, Bias Traps, Pay Ranges

> Write a job ad in this order: a searchable job title, location and working pattern, three to six concrete tasks, genuine must-have requirements, the pay range and benefits, and a simple way to apply. Leave out wording tied to age, sex, ethnicity, religion or disability. Several US states and the EU require pay information up front.

- URL: https://personaloptimierer.de/en/recruiting/how-to-write-a-job-ad/
- Language: en
- Updated: 2026-10-19
- Publisher: Personaloptimierer (OnlineBuilders LLC, https://onlinebuilders.biz)

One line can make a job ad expensive. "Join our young, energetic team" sounds friendly. To an employment tribunal or a court, it can read as a signal that older people need not apply. Picture a rejected 55-year-old applicant who points to that line. She already holds something that looks like evidence of bias, before anyone has examined how you actually chose.

That is no reason to write ads in legalese. It is a reason to write them on purpose.

## The six blocks of a good job ad

Candidates don't read an ad top to bottom. They jump to location, pay and requirements and decide within seconds whether to keep going. Your structure should make that easy.

**Six blocks, in this order**

1. **Job title** The term people actually search for. No internal fantasy titles.
2. **Key facts** Location, remote or hybrid share, hours, contract type, start date.
3. **Tasks** Three to six points that describe a real working week.
4. **Requirements** Genuine must-haves only. Nice-to-haves kept short and separate.
5. **Offer** Pay or pay range, holiday, benefits with numbers attached.
6. **How to apply** One named contact, a deadline, and what documents are enough.

The title deserves more attention than it gets. Job boards and search engines match it against what people type. "Payroll Administrator" gets found. "Payroll Ninja" mostly doesn't.

For tasks, use a simple test: would the person doing the job now recognise the list? "Contribute to strategic initiatives" fails that test. "Process around 400 supplier invoices a month in Xero" passes, and it tells candidates more than three paragraphs about ownership.

Requirements are where most ads go wrong. Long wish lists put off qualified people who don't tick every box. Separate what someone needs on day one from what they can learn in six months, and be honest about which is which.

## Phrases that create discrimination risk

The legal frameworks differ, but the logic is the same. The UK Equality Act 2010 protects nine characteristics, including age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. US federal law is split: Title VII covers race, colour, religion, sex and national origin, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects people aged 40 and over. The ADEA explicitly bars job notices that indicate a preference based on age. Germany's AGG prohibits discriminatory job postings outright.

Open discrimination is rare. The trouble comes from wording that touches a protected characteristic in passing.

| Risky | Why | Better |
|---|---|---|
| "young, dynamic team" | points to age | "a team that moves fast" |
| "recent graduate" | can deter older applicants | "suitable for people early in their career" |
| "native English speaker" | linked to national origin | "fluent written and spoken English" |
| "must be physically fit" | may exclude disabled people | the actual task: "lifting up to 15 kg" |
| "salesman", "waitress" | one sex only | "salesperson", "server" |
| "5–10 years' experience" | an upper cap acts as an age filter | "at least 3 years of experience in …" |

Requirements that do relate to a protected characteristic can be lawful when they are genuinely necessary for the job. That bar is high, and a job ad is the wrong place to test it.

## Pay ranges: where they are required

This is the area changing fastest. Pay transparency laws have spread across the US since Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act took effect in 2021. New York City followed in November 2022, and California and Washington in January 2023. Each law has its own thresholds and details, but the core rule is similar: a good-faith pay range belongs in the posting.

The EU went a step further. Article 5 of the Pay Transparency Directive (EU) 2023/970 gives applicants the right to receive information on starting pay or its range before the interview, for example in the vacancy notice. Employers may no longer ask about pay history, and vacancy notices and job titles should be gender-neutral. Member states had until 7 June 2026 to transpose it. Transposition varies by country. Germany, for example, had not yet amended its pay transparency law by October 2026. The text of the directive is on [EUR-Lex](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/970/oj).

**Pay transparency in job postings: selected milestones**

- **Jan 2021:** Colorado requires pay ranges in job postings.
- **Nov 2022:** New York City pay range requirement takes effect.
- **Jan 2023:** California and Washington follow.
- **June 2023:** EU Pay Transparency Directive enters into force.
- **7 June 2026:** EU transposition deadline.

Source: Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act; New York City Human Rights Law; California SB 1162; Washington RCW 49.58.110; Directive (EU) 2023/970

The UK has no general legal duty to publish pay. My advice is to include it anyway. Ads with pay attract more relevant applications, and if you hire across the EU you will need pay bands soon anyway.

Keep the range honest. "£35,000 to £70,000" tells nobody anything. My rule of thumb: a spread of roughly 15 to 20 percent between bottom and top is credible for a single role.

## Use AI as a drafting tool, then edit

Language models produce decent first drafts if you feed them specifics: tasks, pay, location, team. Don't give them free rein on tone, or the clichés will arrive, including the "young, dynamic team". Germany offers one of the few representative data points: in a 2026 Bitkom survey, 9% of companies already used AI to write job ads and 59% could imagine doing so. How far AI should go in the rest of the process is covered in [AI in recruitment](https://personaloptimierer.de/en/recruiting/ai-in-recruitment/).

## A short template

Here is a compact ad for a payroll role. The figures are an example, not market data.

> **Payroll Administrator, 30–37.5 hrs/week, Leeds, 2 days remote**
> You run monthly payroll for about 180 employees, handle starters and leavers and deal with HMRC queries.
> You have at least two years of payroll experience and know your way around PAYE and pensions auto-enrolment.
> We pay £31,000 to £36,000, plus 28 days' holiday including bank holidays.
> A CV is enough. Send it to Sam Example by 15 November.

Five lines, everything that matters, no filler.

## Where to publish

Your careers page is the hub every other channel links to. For Google to show the job in its job search, the page needs `JobPosting` structured data. Google's developer documentation lists the required fields, such as title, description, date posted and job location, and pay goes into `baseSalary`. Most applicant tracking systems generate this markup automatically, but ask.

Beyond that, test channels instead of trusting rankings. Run one paid board per role and ask every applicant where they saw the ad. After three or four roles you will know more than any comparison table can tell you.

## What happens after you publish

An ad starts a process. Applications belong in a proper system rather than an inbox, and rejections should go out quickly and neutrally. Both are covered in our guides to choosing an [applicant tracking system](https://personaloptimierer.de/en/recruiting/applicant-tracking-system-small-business/) and writing a [candidate rejection email](https://personaloptimierer.de/en/recruiting/candidate-rejection-email/). If you are planning your own careers platform, a studio like [OnlineBuilders](https://onlinebuilders.biz/solutions/talent-management) can advise on the technical side.

Your next step: take your current ad and go through the table above line by line. Then set a pay range for the role, even if you are not publishing it yet.

## FAQ

### How long should a job ad be?

For most roles, 250 to 450 words is enough. Length matters less than specifics: concrete tasks, real requirements and visible pay.

### Do I have to include a salary range?

It depends on where the job is. Colorado, California, Washington and New York City, among others, require pay ranges in postings. The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires pay information before the interview, with a transposition deadline of 7 June 2026. In the UK there is no general legal duty.

### Can I ask for a 'recent graduate'?

It is risky. In the US, the EEOC treats such wording as potentially discouraging older applicants under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Describe the level of experience instead, for example 'suitable for people early in their career'.

### Should I use gendered job titles?

No. Use neutral titles such as 'chair', 'salesperson' or 'firefighter'. In Germany employers add (m/w/d) to signal that all genders are addressed, and the EU directive asks for gender-neutral vacancy notices.

Photo: Andy Li, CC0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Job_board_in_HKOSCon_2018.jpg)