<p>I’m asking in the parent’s forum since you guys have the most experience in life in general. </p>
<p>A lawyer told me the other day that it is illegal for companies to find out your previous salary at another place without you knowing.</p>
<p>Is this really true?</p>
<p>Every application the kids have ever filled out has asked “what was your salary” in the work history section. I think you may be leaving out some information.</p>
<p>I’m not leaving out anything. I know they ask for it. But I’m wondering what’s the point of them even asking if they can’t verify it in the first place.</p>
<p>Well, I’m sure they’re hoping you will be honest. And I’m sure they use it to gauge whether or not they can compete with your probable expectations, and what they should pay you if they were to hire you. Do you think they verify EVERYTHING on your application? Surely not. You WOULD be honest, right?</p>
<p>It’s a smaller world out there than you might think. You never know who’s looking at your app. Could have been working at the company you are now or know someone well there. If it’s a company in the same industry, they’ll have a good idea anyways.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether it is or isn’t legal, however, at my company the only thing HR will verify is your dates of service as an employee. I would think if they wanted to verify your salary, the easiest way would be to ask you for a paystub.</p>
<p>My experience has been that the company would not outright tell the salary, but that they would confirm or deny if the prospective employer asked “can you confirm that his last salary was $xxx”.</p>
<p>My company has an automated line for employment verification (for credit verification purposes) of which i can provide access, but NEVER salary and they will not ever provide a recommendation to avoid any issues. Mortgage companies and lenders may request pay stub verification if your credit score is below a certain level, or if you have no credit. It is always awkward when employers request salary information…to provide or not to provide…that is always the question. Some apps say what salary do you expect?</p>
<p>Employers ask what your last salary is because they are lazy. They don’t want to have to do any heavy thinking, so they leave it up to your last employer to determine what you are worth. If you think you are currently earning too little for your skills and experience and you are asked this question, you can say, “I’m sure you can understand that that is confidential. However, I’m looking for a salary between $X and $Y.”</p>
<p>“You WOULD be honest, right?”</p>
<p>Of course.</p>
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<p>If you don’t respond then they will assume a number. It tells them whether you are worth pursuing or not. Let’s say that the job pays $50,000/yr, and you put down that you earned $75,000 at your last job. That will make them think twice about whether they have a chance at getting and/or keeping you. </p>
<p>Let’s say you were having a few drinks after work with co-workers and complained you do twice the amount of work for 1/2 the salary, but you needed a job … It would be an easy reason to fire you, rather than having to document poor performance, etc. At that point, you would have to prove that you didn’t lie on your application, and that you were bragging to the co-worker.</p>
<p>I see. I gather from the responses that it’s mostly taken by faith. </p>
<p>What about actually verifying work status? </p>
<p>I mean if I worked as a Nanny for $40K a year, there is no way a background check would verify that. So what then?</p>
<p>Another way they do this is to ask: “What are you looking for?” That gets them a ballpark value so that they can decide whether or not they think that you are worth it to them.</p>
<p>What’s the point of your questions?</p>
<p>If I was hiring a Nanny, I would ask for a reference, the name and number of your previous employer. If you refuse to give me, I would not be comfortable hiring you.</p>
<p>If you worked as a nanny, and you are looking for an office type job, your salary as a nanny wouldn’t make much of a difference to them. But if you were working at a similar job and you are making $X, it gives them some idea where you were in that field and what to offer you. If the numbers seem out of range, they might do some snooping. As I said earlier, the world is a lot smaller than you would think. There is a lot of unwritten protocol out there.</p>
<p>Ttparent, there are times when nannies are looking for other jobs while still working, and request that you do not contact current employer, but will give the names of employers before that. Sometimes due to hours, personalty issues, whatever reasons, someone is looking to leave a current position but needs/wants to keep it until they have another place to go. Happens all of the time for office work. The etiquette is that you don’t contact a current employer.</p>
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<p>When I’ve been asked this question, I respond, “An interesting job that’s challenging, co-workers whom I respect, and an organization that’s ethical and growing.”</p>
<p>If they want to know specifically what salary I’m looking for, then let them ask me that directly.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, if you apply for a job would you take it if it paid less than your current or former salary? Like someone said it’s a short-cut to weed out applicants who don’t fall between the grade pay scale. You might WANT to put down a salary and negotiate from there.</p>
<p>It’s not illegal to ask about salary. What you make or made is not a discriminatory classification like race, religion or national origin or even marital status.</p>
<p>My previous employer, a very large financial institution, used to ask their applicants for their latest W2 from their employer(s).</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s illegal for them to ask you to provide proof of your prior salary, although many won’t do this. It’s getting harder these days to find out anything directly from prior employers, since so many of them now as a matter of policy only verify dates of employment. But as somebody stated, it’s a small world, and sometimes the new employer knows somebody at the prior employer who will talk off the record, for good or ill.</p>