How Is Salary Information Obtained by a Potential Employer?
Employers can find out what your previous salaries have been, or what they were likely to have been, using a variety of methods. Much of the time, job applicants provide the information in some form during the application and interview process. However, employers also have other options at their disposal to learn your salary history.
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Purpose
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Employers want to know how much money you earned in previous jobs. They do this so that they can gauge the chances you would want to work for them given the salary they plan to offer. They may not be able to afford your experience and educational background. If the salaries you have earned in the past are well below what the employer plans to offer, the employer may wonder if you can do the job well enough and at the quality level it requires. The employer may also use your low salary to offer you less money than it had originally planned.
Cover Letter
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An employer may request that a job applicant mention her salary history as part of her cover letter when responding to a job advertisement with a resume. This information is often put into the last paragraphs of the letter. You can respond to the request in a number of ways. You can say that salary is negotiable or provide a graph of salary percentage increases over the years, for example, or directly state what your last salary was. Employers may also simply ask you to prove your stated salary history by providing your latest W-2 or pay stub.
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Job Application
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An employer may request that applicants enter their previous jobs' salary information on job applications, too. An application may have room to enter raises for each job, or it may only offer room for your last salary. If the application offers room for only your last salary, you will not have room to indicate that your good work earned you a raise in a previous position.
Reference Checks
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A potential employer can also contact your previous employers for reference checks. Your former employer may divulge your final salary during the phone call with the potential employer, according the website Privacy Rights.
Research
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An employer may also consult a salary survey for the industry and the position which you last held to find out your previous salary information. When you provide your educational background and years of experience on a resume or job application, an employer can use that information to find out a probable past salary for you. An employer also often knows generally what competitors offer for similar positions, and human resources personnel talk between companies regularly. Your previous government job may have a pay scale that is public record, so a potential employer can learn about your salary history this way as well.
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