Salary History
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
I think they just want to get a feel for if you're trying to make a jump, for example, from a $50K to a $100K job. I have been asked for my recent salary history informally (not on paper) after I had gotten through early interview stages. Especially if you're applying for a job in the same geographical market (that is, not from Silicon Valley to some podunk town where the salary is a fraction), they just want to make sure you're not trying to take advantage. Of course, I always feel like my salary should be entirely based on how much money I can earn for the company, regardless of how much I had been paid. You have to be pretty diplomatic and a good negotiator to discuss this with your potential employer. If you're not trying to make a huge (i.e. more 25%) jump in salary, just be honest and give them a recent history. Usually, it's your starting and ending salary for the last few jobs. If it's a company you like, why not just be honest with them? You'll be better off.
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
I'm getting that a lot of that these days, especially as you go after more senior positions. I just tell them since I don't care. They're actually surprised, not about my raises which are better than average, but about my pay jumps whenever I switch companies. I just tell them I hold out until I get what I want. :-)
There are II kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who understand Roman numerals. Web - Blog - RSS - Math
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
I've read all the responses to-date and agree with the folks that stated it's none of their business. You set your value and your worth by what you will accept. Anything else puts you at the mercy of a prospective employer. Certain people who don't have confidence in their own ability will accept whatever terms are presented to them and then play the "negotiating game" to get a couple dollars more. This allows companies to hire as cheaply as the market will bear. If the rest get better paying jobs in a market with many openings, and few qualified candidates, everyone starts looking for more money. This is why some employers are rated higher than others for providing consistently better salaries and benefits, and others hire on the cheap. You just need to know what process you will accept. I for one won't discuss salary history except to say that my current salary requirements are set above my previous, and that I will set my requirement after I know the role and responsibility I am about to undertake and after a real offer is made. The last time someone asked me for my rate, as an independent software architect and developer, I got it, and life was good. Only one caveat...non-HR recruiters will ask for salary history to know where they can look because they know what people are paying. This information is not shared and you can still refuse, but the worst case here, and I've had it happen to me, is that someone can negotiate a salary for you that is not acceptable, leaving all parties flabbergasted. :doh:
-
I think they just want to get a feel for if you're trying to make a jump, for example, from a $50K to a $100K job. I have been asked for my recent salary history informally (not on paper) after I had gotten through early interview stages. Especially if you're applying for a job in the same geographical market (that is, not from Silicon Valley to some podunk town where the salary is a fraction), they just want to make sure you're not trying to take advantage. Of course, I always feel like my salary should be entirely based on how much money I can earn for the company, regardless of how much I had been paid. You have to be pretty diplomatic and a good negotiator to discuss this with your potential employer. If you're not trying to make a huge (i.e. more 25%) jump in salary, just be honest and give them a recent history. Usually, it's your starting and ending salary for the last few jobs. If it's a company you like, why not just be honest with them? You'll be better off.
HR Departments are not known to be honest, at least at the several rather large companies I've worked for. They are trying to get you for as little as possible, or will pay a specific amount above what you were recently making. If you were getting 85K, maybe they'll pay you 90K, but you want 115K. If you can get 115K why even entertain the 90K? Now you cannot negotiate, so it becomes a waste of time. There is no reason an employer or and HR department ever needs to know your salary history. And, no matter what, don’t lie. Once you tell them your history it becomes public record. If you lie, they will find out and you will be fired. Anyone disagree?:suss:
-
very often the person doing the hiring is not the one interested in the salary history. but rather it's the HR folks who are usually the ones interested. giving salary history is not a requirement of doing a job and if you don't want to hire me because i don't provide salary history so you can try to get me "on the cheap" then i don't want to work for you.
Silence is the voice of complicity. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. -- monty python Might I suggest that the universe was always the size of the cosmos. It is just that at one point the cosmos was the size of a marble. -- Colin Angus Mackay
I totally agree. Companies have no business knowing your previous salary. The only thing they need to be concerned with is what your current salary requirements are in order to get you on board at the company now. That whole game of "what did you make previously" I've only seen used by companies to make marginal increments on salary in the offer letter. What you made previously should not be a factor in the hiring company's decision on how good of an employee you are, how you will perform at the company, or anything else. Even if what you made before was a lot higher and you're taking a pay decrease in order to take a more desirable/fullfilling position, they don't need to know that. If they ask for the information, simply tell them that's not up for discussion and that you're only going to discuss the offered position's salary range and/or your current salary requirements so you can come to a hiring agreement.
-
wrote:
The salary over the last 20 years?
I would say that is what they wanted. Possibly it is to see how many times you have had raises...
John
Asking for 20 years of salary history seems kinda silly. If I go back 20 years, my salary was around $26,000. I see no value in that for today's salary ranges. If I list out the one's I can think of, it would look like: $26,000 $38,000 - moved to California $42,000 $110,000 - dot com era $40,000 - dot com bust $42,000 $60,000 When ever I got a big raise, it was because I changed jobs. Most of the placed I was at had a pay range between 2.5 to 3.0% - not much of a raise.
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
I really think it's irrelavent unless they are willing to compare total compensation (benefits, bonuses, etc.). I asked for a 25% pay raise when I changed jobs last. I had been working for the same company for 7 years and gotten very little in pay raises. But instead I was given stock options. Which amounted to 125% of my annual salary when I cashed them in (I had to because the company had been bought out). When I discussed salary with my new imployer they balked at first about the amount I was asking because of my salary history. However, I explained to them that my previous salary was a product of the lack of money in my last company and that I had been given alternative compensation. Plus my previous job offered my more than I am making now to stay. They had more money now because of the company which had purchased them. It killed me to leave a great job (great boss and co-workers with a fun product) which was offering a great salary, but it has been a good move for my career.
Mark's blog: developMENTALmadness.blogspot.com
-
I really think it's irrelavent unless they are willing to compare total compensation (benefits, bonuses, etc.). I asked for a 25% pay raise when I changed jobs last. I had been working for the same company for 7 years and gotten very little in pay raises. But instead I was given stock options. Which amounted to 125% of my annual salary when I cashed them in (I had to because the company had been bought out). When I discussed salary with my new imployer they balked at first about the amount I was asking because of my salary history. However, I explained to them that my previous salary was a product of the lack of money in my last company and that I had been given alternative compensation. Plus my previous job offered my more than I am making now to stay. They had more money now because of the company which had purchased them. It killed me to leave a great job (great boss and co-workers with a fun product) which was offering a great salary, but it has been a good move for my career.
Mark's blog: developMENTALmadness.blogspot.com
Mark J. Miller wrote:
Plus my previous job offered my more than I am making now to stay.
even if you took the offer would they actually keep you around for longer than it'd've taken to train your replacement?
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
-
Mark J. Miller wrote:
Plus my previous job offered my more than I am making now to stay.
even if you took the offer would they actually keep you around for longer than it'd've taken to train your replacement?
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
While it can never be said for sure, I am confident that the job was mine as long as I wanted it. I still have an open invitation to come back and I remain in contact with the CEO, CTO and Lead Developer who are all good friends - I just never get to see them anymore since I moved 2 states away.
Mark's blog: developMENTALmadness.blogspot.com
-
I would tell 'em to mind their own business: it is usually so they can make you an offer that is above what you just got but not too much. Unless you ask them what the salary history is for the job you've applied for... And if I did intend to answer I would first of all wnat to know what the offer that they would like to make is.
You guys are hilarious! Pay can be a determining hiring factor in whether someone takes a job. Why wouldn't employers ask? Providing salary history allows potential employers to determine if they can afford you so they doesn't waste their time talking with someone they can’t get. If the employer offers you a marginal raise then DON'T take the job. If you have significantly improved your skill set or experience that your current salary doesn’t recognize then point it out during the interview or salary negotiation. On the other hand, if it's a good opportunity and worth a pay cut, you can use that to your advantage after they offer you the job.
-
But how would you check it anyway? Also, you don't know which raises were performance based, and which were inflation based.
almost impossible to verify and what about the raises due to company wide bonuses which don't neccessarily reflect the individuals contribution. Do you include one off bonuses as well? More HR boolsheet if you ask me
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
Ask them. Better that you ask them what they want from a salary history than have them accidentally stumble across the code project forum and see that you took some advice from someone and refuse to tell them what it is! Employers are people too ;)
-
Although I agree HR probably will want this more I think it is still useful for the interviewer. I mean if I see a candidate who consistently got 5% or better annual raises to me that says that the company rewarded him/her for their work.
John
Or... if he/she did not get annual raises maybe that's why he/she is looking for another job. Worked for one company... They gave bosses huge raises and bonuses ever year as well as the owners also and then announced the company did not make a profit so there would be no raises, no profit sharing, and no Christmas bonuses.
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
-
Although I agree HR probably will want this more I think it is still useful for the interviewer. I mean if I see a candidate who consistently got 5% or better annual raises to me that says that the company rewarded him/her for their work.
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
if I see a candidate who consistently got 5% or better annual raises
Then my salary history wouldn't do you any good, anyway. When I give a salary history, I only include the highest salary received at each company/position listed on the resume.
Grim (aka Toby) MCDBA, MCSD, MCP+SB SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue IS NOT NULL (0 row(s) affected)
-
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history. I have never seen that before and am curious as to exactly what is wanted. My current salary? The salary over the last 20 years? Any help is appreciated. Tim
Tim Carmichael wrote:
I saw an advertisement for a job I am interested in, and they asked for a salary history.
Asking this before an interview is pretty dicey (especially in the tech field). Maybe they had some shitty experience with a few guys and they foolishly figure this will solve their problem (there are lots of iffy business people). Personally my tack would be simple: No salary history attached because it obviously wasn't relevant or I wouldn't be sending you this resume.
Tim Carmichael wrote:
am curious as to exactly what is wanted
They likely want somebody crazy enough to actually answer the question. If anything, they should be displaying a salary range with the posting in an attempt to attract the right talent. Instead they're doing it the other way around. This has "poor-quality" written all over it.
-
MidwestLimey wrote:
I've never worked anywhere longer then 2.5 yrs
ouch... that would be a big strike here.... not that we expect people to stay forever, but 2.5 years longest means we are training you to benefit someone else never us. that's not a great incentive to any employer.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I see two reasons why this can happen: 1) If you're a good learner, you've "grown" out of your job about ever 2.5 years. There's not always a place to move up in the company you're with. 2) It's easier to get a real raise (a typical 4% barely keeps up with inflation) without changing jobs, or getting the same job with another company. Also, if you're capable, a company is likely to dump more and more work and responsibility on you, but it doesn't usually come with a pay increase.