Posted on 06/04/2013 10:22:02 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Question: I read your article titled "Keep Your Salary Under Wraps," and I agree completely that there is no good reason (from the employee's perspective) to disclose your current salary to a future employer. A competent business should be able to independently assess a prospective employee's worth without being biased by another data point. Judging from your article, however, you may not be aware that employers require salary information.
For instance, online applications frequently make the "current salary" field mandatory. You cannot proceed without entering a numeric value. Human resources representatives almost always ask about current salary during the initial phone interview, and your refusal to follow protocol could end the interviewing.
How should applicants deal with questions that require an answer about current salary? I am confident that applicants who refuse to answer, no matter how professionally, will have little luck advancing in the application process.
Nick Corcodilos: Employers don't really require your salary history to hire you. But many do like to bully you into disclosing private, confidential information that will give them an unfair negotiating position. So they call it "the policy."
I would never, ever disclose my current salary or salary history to a prospective employer even if it means ending the interview process. That is my advice to job hunters.
Employers use online applications for two reasons. One is that they are expedient. Those poor HR staff have no way to process all the millions of inappropriate applications they solicit from people they don't know. The other reason is that automated forms enable them to intimidate you into sharing information that is none of their business. When employers re-brand their rudeness as "policy," many job applicants will go along. But not all.
Ask The Headhunter readers tell me they say no to the salary question without getting kicked out of the interview process. There are plenty of employers who will respect that position; the rest are playing games. What makes you think playing games will lead to a good job and a good salary with a good employer?
The article you refer to is actually a very abbreviated version of my PDF book, "Keep Your Salary Under Wraps." Here are a few tips from the book about how to deal with inappropriate salary requests from employers. The basic idea is, either walk away entirely, or approach from a direction that avoids such silly obstacles.
You can take a strong position with any employer by putting it all on the line. Tell the employer, "Look, I won't tell you my past salary because I'd like to have an honest, fair negotiation based on what I can do to make your business more successful. If I can't demonstrate my value, then you should not make me an offer or hire me. We can part as friends. But I'd like to show you how I can contribute enough to your business that you'll want to pay me well to do this job." See "That's why it's called compensation."
That's a friendly, assertive way to continue the interview process. If an employer still demands your salary history, I'd walk away. Don't participate in a one-sided negotiation that is not a win-win proposition.
But what about LYING about your salary? You know darn well the HR goons are lying to you. If they wanna know your income - then throw them a number that benefits you.
Never lie on an application. Instead, respond by saying “I am prepared to discuss my salary expectation.”
I had one interview where the director of QA was interviewing me and asked me my salary. I told him and he closed his notebook and said, “This interview is over”. He told me he was making only 1k more than I was. LMAO!
I’ve always just given my desired salary. There have been plenty of instances where I never got a call back, but some have come back to say, “While we can’t match your current salary, we can offer...”
It’s just like he says, it’s an unfair bargaining tactic. Just don’t play the game or beat them at it.
As an employer I ask for this information for two reasons. First to know whether I can afford you, secondly to know what you might find enticing if I decide to hire you.
As the employer I am the buyer. Lie to me or refuse to answer and I’ll go the next candidate in a heartbeat.
This is the whole game, right here. Nothing else matters.
As has been the case with retailers, the Internet has reduced much of HR to strict price-shopping.
Searches and screens are conducted strictly on salary numbers by many.
HR departments have long been government-like bureaucratic puddles of inefficiency but their refusal to go beyond the numbers renders them even less useful.
Sometimes the poor recruiter is just trying to establish that he’s not wasting your time with something that pays way below your expectations.
The purpose of HR is to protect the company. Hiring managers tend to ask the wrong questions and get the company sued. They also tend not to care about hiring quotas which exist at most big companies.
HR folks are non-technical Himmlers who DESERVE to be lied to.
Their core mission is firing you in a way that prevents lawsuits.
If you HAVE a current salary, and you are looking, then the best thing to do (to save your time and theirs) is not to interview for jobs that do not meet some expected level higher than what you have.
For example, if you are getting 45/hr then you just tell recruiters you are looking for 55/hr
This may cut you out of the chance they were willing to go to 65/ hr, but that’s the trouble with negotiations... you never know what cards the other guy is holding.
So... Your best benefit is to tell them what you are looking for (I have done it that way for the last 20 years)
Large companies are now using these online HR portals mainly to comply with an EEOC policy called OFCCP.
This forces them to compile long lists of candidates and hires indexed by race. For example, for “Sales Associate” they need to tell the government that 89 people applied, 45 Caucasian, 15 Black, 9 Hispanic, etc. Then they have to show that they interviewed enough candidates from each protected group. Then they need to say they hired Jane Doe, a Caucasian female, and justify the reasons they hired her and not the others.
And the only way they can compile race data is to pressure you to self-identify on the website.
BINGO! Refuse to answer my questions and I will refuse to hire you.
I agree, which is why I START the conversation by having the recruiter describe the position in detail, and first see if it is a good fit for my skills.
The second step is to let them know I dont come cheap and for the job of XXXXX, I expect a compensation package of YYYY. And then directly ask the recruiter are we still able to proceed. Several times I have been told no, that my expectations were not in alignment with the business’s compensation plan. To which I stated that I understood and if they had a position more in line with my expectations, feel free to call me in the future.
You probably can’t afford me. There is more demand for my services than there is a supply of others who can do the work I perform. My clients are eager to pay me.
I’m also the buyer, as I can decline any clients who displease me. I don’t have a salary, but I bill by the hour. My hourly rate is always disclosed, but nobody sees my income. I’m a professional and I come and go as I please. Value for value on equal terms, or I withdraw.
Not anymore. Most jobs must be applied to on line. In fact, because of self-reporting EOE rules, most do not want to even meet you before a down select process even happens, lest they be accused of non-compliance with EOE rules.
Spot on. Your strategy has worked well for me for the last 16 years. Oh, and I have ALWAYS had a current salary.
what is the lowerst base salary I can offer this slob and get away with it.
Fixed it.
btw, how was the move for you? Is everything ok for you?
It’s part of a filter when searching for prosective employees. If your previous salary is above or below a specific range, your application is automatically discarded. Regardless of what a prosective employer tells you, they want to get you for as cheap as possible, within the accepted window of pay for that particular industry standard. The current job market is an employer’s market, and they can cherry pick employees for the best (lowest) wages for the work required. Any prosective employer who tells you otherwise, is lying through their teeth. The new business paradigm is to treat labor as a commodity, to be used and disposed of as required. If they don’t, then they will be crushed by their competition.
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