[ale] recruiter salary questions

[Chuck Huber]

On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 12:26:33PM -0800, Bigg Head wrote:
> anyone know the legality of inflating your salary when
> questioned by a recruiter?

It's not illegal.

> So, say you are making 50k, tell a recruiter you're
> making 55k, and the company comes back with an offer
> of 60k, which you accept.
> 
> can this come back to byte u?

Yes.

> do companies typically
> research your pay history after hiring you?

No.  Most of the research is done prior to hiring you.

> is this illegal?

The research is not legal.  As an employer, I'd want to know
exactly who it is I'm hiring.  A credit check, criminal background
check, and interviews with previous employers always help.
It is illegal for your present/past employer to provide salary
information to anyone, including potential employers.  If they do,
then *you* have legal recourse against the previous employer. As
such, recruiters and potential employers will not even ask the
question.

> is it grounds for termination?

Depends on company policy.  They would be able to terminate
you for providing false information on your application.  But
there's nothing illegal about doing so, unless your employer
happens to be a government agency.

> my stance is that I should be able to tell them
> anything I want...but i could be wrong as usual ;-P.

Those are the facts.  Now with that said...

Recruiters will ask *you* what your previous salary was as a
basis to start negotiations.  YOu can choose to provide accurate
figures to them, or inaccurate figures, or politely decline by
answering "I'm looking for $60k."  It's difficult to decline to
answer a question without setting a negative tone.  After all,
you need to work together.

You could also provide them accuract figures: "Well, I took a
cut in pay to $50k and declined raises to help accomodate corporate
financial problems.  Moving forward, I can't accept any offer
less than $60k."

You recruiter won't provide any salary information to potential
employers mostly because it is detrimental to their negotiating
effort with them.  However, if all goes well with the interview,
you'll be asked by the new employer to fill out an employment
application, on which they will ask for your work and salary
history.  Since at this point, you're basically hired and are
merely filling out all the forms, you can simply NOT provide the
salary information.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy,
    - Chuck

-- 
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