Here’s my latest gripe about this oft-made request: Wage disclosures will most likely serve to limit your salary potential rather than to expand it. In short, it’s a lose-lose situation. For example, if your wages have been on the low side (translate, female) you will be penalized because HR doesn’t feel you are worth more; and if your wages have been higher than average, HR might suspect that you aren't a good fit for its compensation package. So what’s a job seeker to do?

Divulging your salary history, I believe, will hurt you either way. Consequently, my curmudgeonly and defiant solution is: Just say no. 

I encourage jobseekers in our Alumni Career Services program to refuse filling in those blanks or indicate, when applicable, that they signed a non-disclosure clause in previous employment contracts. That said, this is not easy for everyone to do. I have seen normally strong-willed individuals with a good understanding of the employment process weaken in lieu of leaving a blank space on their employment application.  Many feel duty-bound to complete the assignment, fearing that non-compliance will work against them.

On the contrary, I maintain that a hiring organization has no right to ask questions regarding your previous compensation and that it’s perfectly acceptable to leave that information off of a job application. Your salary history is confidential―typically private information between you and your employer. However, one argument levied by HR professionals to justify this tactic is that your past salary establishes your value and enables them to determine your experience level. But, if that were truly the case, then employers wouldn’t need to interview you. All they would need is your complete salary history and you'd be heading to a new position. 

Important Fact That Must Be Understood

Salary is a judgment of value based on the employer’s industry, the company’s mmediate business concerns, and the job to be done. It stands apart from who you are and what you’ve done or what you have been paid before. That is how an offer should be derived. It shouldn’t matter whether you were once a barista at Starbucks making $10 an hour; or that this year you are earning $45K designing Web pages; or that you were previously a CEO of a company, earning $150K, but were downsized to a $50K sales job.

Bottom line:  when you willingly divulge your salary history, you give up your negotiating leverage.  Any company that rejects a good candidate because he or she refuses to divulge salary history isn't a very smart company, and certainly not a competitive one.

So on the empty space on the form for salary information, list your salary as CONFIDENTIAL, to be discussed only with the hiring manager.

Making an issue of salary history does not merit your being rude or presumptuous; it simply requires that you be polite, but firm.

Need career advice or support on your career direction?

Contact Julie Swaner
Program Manager, Alumni Career Services
(801) 585-5036