When checking references for a potential hire, can I ask HR depts. or previous supervisors the salary history of the person I am interested in hiring?

I'm being told NO...but from reading other posts, it doesn't appear that any question is off limits as long as it pertains to the job and isn't viewed as discriminatory.

CAN you? Yes. SHOULD you? Why?

The pros of asking are to make sure the candidate is being truthful in the salary he/she declared and to make sure we're offering a salary inline with their previous salaries.

Is this not a normal practice?

It is not an uncommon practice.

There are two schools of thought among HR professionals as to whether there is any value to asking this question. Some are very much in favor; some see no point. It's strictly a matter of opinion. It IS a legal question.

What do you mean by "It IS a legal question."

I just want to make sure that I'm not doing anything wrong by asking this questions while checking references!

Thanks!

She means the question itself is legal, in that there is no law prohibiting you from asking it.

She means that asking the question is legal and the employer providing that information is legal.

Opinions vary but I think it's a good idea to verify salary. I've had candidates inflate their prior earnings in the hopes of getting a higher offer. (Actually, if I find out they lied about their income, they don't get an offer at all.)

Exactly. You are NOT going to get into any legal trouble for asking the question.

I wouldnt think that asking about the compensation earned would be relevant in hiring someone. Are they doing the exact same job ? Where did they live ? In my case I refused to divulge my prior pay history when I went on interviews. Comparing Illinois wages to Arizona wages is like apples and oranges and it wasnt until I found an HONEST head hunter was I able to finally egt great wages here in Arizona. There just are too many factors in considering a persons wages. I did tell a few head hunters when I first got out here in March and I lowballed myself big time - so then I stopped and I would jsut tell anyone that asked me how much I made in my prior position that I wouldnt answer that question and they could tell ME how much they wanted to pay and I would decide if I wanted to consider the position or not. And it worked finally - I would still be making 12 bucks an hour if I had told me new company what I made in my past position

Relevant or not, it's legal to ask.

Relevant or not, it's legal to ask.

I didnt say it was illegal - they can ask all they want but that doesnt mean I cant dodge the answer by putting it back on them to tell me what they are willing to pay

We make the salary range (for some jobs) and actual salary (for others with no negotiation) clear up front. No, you dont want someone to lie about a salary but people are willing to accept lower salaries than their previous job for many, many legitimate reasons.

I live in a suburb of a major city and after driving 54 miles each way (thats 75 minutes on a good day and close to 2 hours on a bad day), I looked at my life and my family and chose to look for a job closer to home. The salary was lower and I was very willing to swap $$ for time.

We also look at jobs and duties more than actual salary.
I guess the question is "what are you learning from asking about the salary and is that the best way to obtain that information?"

We make the salary range (for some jobs) and actual salary (for others with no negotiation) clear up front. No, you dont want someone to lie about a salary but people are willing to accept lower salaries than their previous job for many, many legitimate reasons.

I live in a suburb of a major city and after driving 54 miles each way (thats 75 minutes on a good day and close to 2 hours on a bad day), I looked at my life and my family and chose to look for a job closer to home. The salary was lower and I was very willing to swap $$ for time.

We also look at jobs and duties more than actual salary.
I guess the question is "what are you learning from asking about the salary and is that the best way to obtain that information?"


True on the lowering salary - I have always lived in a town that jobs were within a 15 mintue drive across town but now in Arizona I have so many choices and two of my major things I looked at when accepting an offer was the distance and the cost of health insurance. I am looking now for a different position that I will gladly take a small cut in pay - 5000 a year - becasue I pay alot for my health insurance the if I can find a palce closer to my home then it all weighs itself out - but like I said back in Illinois I made 12 an hour and that was considered great pay in my town but here that doesnt even touch someone with my qualifications.

uwishtoo; I think you have mistaken this forum for a chat room. I don't mean that rudely.

However, this is at least the third thread where you have begun conversationally discussing your own situations, often in a different state, instead of focusing on the poster's situation. That is not the purpose of these boards.

What cbg was saying (and quite politely, I might add), was that the employment law forum was to try and answer poster's questions as it applies to the law... that's all. When another poster begins talking about themselves, it tends to send the post off on a tangent and then people get confused as to which post others are talking about. Your first post was fine, it was the third one that got off course.

And cbg is the moderator of the forums, so yes, her job is to regulate the threads so they don't go off course. I guess you could call her the forum fairy, but you'd have to run it by her first. :D

Her comment was simply to let you know how the forums work.

I will attempt to bring this thread back on track while incorporating some concerns expressed in previous posts.

There are no illegal questions. Find me a law that says "it is illegal to ask..." It won't happen.

However, companies can get themselves in hot water if they ask a question and then use that answer to disqualify someone from consideration from the job if the answer reveals the person is in some protected category. For example, asking how hold someone is and not hiring anyone over 40.

A person's previous salary does not put them in any protected category, so companies can feel free to ask about previous salary with no fears of being charged with discrimination.

On the security guard side of the house, we ask previous salary and for ONE good reason. The longevity of those that take a major cut in pay to work for us is short. They take the pay cut simply because they need the job, but they will stay only long enough to find something (anything) that pays what they used to make.

When you are looking at applicants and companies in different parts of the country, as a headhunter, I kept information about wages and cost of living readily available so that I could make the comparison and get an idea if I was wasting my time or not. I had one candidate, in Stamford, CT (at the time, the highest cost of living in the US) making pretty decent pay. He refused to budge for less than a 10% increase in pay, even for the job I had in mind in Alabama that would have paid about the same he was making, but with substantially lower costs of living. When he refused to consider it, his file was retired.

If you won't tell me what you were making in the past, I might be able to work with you, but we will need to play a lot of games about what salary you would take for a given area of the country. Too much work for me with little promise of a return on my investment. Sayonara.

Who the hell are you ? The forum fairy ??? I AM being rude - sorry tough !

No, cbg is a moderator.

I suspect she has the power to ban you from posting.

Even if she does not have that power, she certainly can contact the Administrator who can do that.

Given how rude you have been to her in this thread and another, I would not be surprised to see you banned from posting soon.

You have issues and they aren't with me.

I just think it's funny that she said cbg was rude to her when cbg clearly stated in her post that she didn't "mean [it] rudely". :D

But I think she's frustrated because someone on another thread was kind of rude about her "piggybacking" on another's thread. Doesn't excuse this, but I think it's where it is coming from.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...:p