HR Question -Salary Negotiation - asking for payslips to prove current salary??

[HerderofDragons]

I've been offered a job at a new organisation. The salary was advertised as £xx-£xx with no suggestion of starting at the bottom of this only. In my current job I am on the mid point in this band and have requested that they could come in slightly above. I have told them exact current salary. They offered the bottom of the scale (so a big chunk under my current salary). I sent a fairly standard negotiating email. They have responded asking for my last three pay slips.

I am honestly quite shocked at this. Firstly I guess it is questioning my honesty and integrity, second it is overlooking my skills and experience for the role and finally it feels overly intrusive.

A quick Google seems to suggest it is unethical but not illegal. I was really keen on the role but this has massively put me off. Thoughts? Advice?

That would massively put me off too. Unless it was my ultimate dream job I wouldn't take it any further, and would tell them why.

I wouldn't want to but depends how much I wanted the job. Could you ask your current employer just to write a headed letter rather than a payslip with lots of other info.

It's not great, as they should base it on your experience/worth

Giving then the benefit of the doubt otoh - they don't know you at all yet and may have been burned before

If it's your dream job - just send them and see what they offer

Or would you prefer to stay where you are?

Nope, not unless I was desperate. I wouldn’t want to work in that culture.

(And I’d very much tell them this)

That would really put me off too. What a shame. It does indicate that you might find the ethos of the organisation doesn’t suits you. If it’s a good career move and you’d be happy moving on in a year or two if it’s not for you then I would consider taking it. If you enjoy your current job and it’s a sideways move I wouldn’t move. How much do you know about the organisation and its culture. If it is a large organisation where the hiring manager and HR are having to get senior approval to offer more than the bottom of the band and someone has said off the cuff - get confirmation of current salary and I’ll sign off on the higher amount - then that would bot be as off putting as the hiring manager or local HR contact asking for proof. It wouldn’t necessarily be a deal breaker for me but it would make me reassess and look for any other red flags.

If you withdraw they may just assume it is because you were lying! I’d be inclined to provide the evidence at the same time as withdrawing - and explaining to them exactly why.

I’ve worked in HR in the public sector - which typically advertises grand bands like you describe. My experience was that there would be manager discretion allowed within the bottom points on the band, but requests to be placed toward the middle/top of the band were centrally benchmarked. The aim of this was to reduce sex-based discrimination in pay- a man might be more bullish in asking for a higher starting salary, for example, but we wouldn’t grant it automatically without considering his experience compared to others in the existing team and the wider institution.

I’d take being asked for the payslips as a sign that your prospective line manager wants to put forward a serious case for you to get the higher starting salary. Not that they mistrust you but they want to build a strong argument for HR. A good sign. Perhaps clumsily expressed- people in these environments just get used to that way of doing business and don’t see what’s odd any longer.

WildFeathers thanks - you have highlighted some good things for me there. It is a sideways move for sure but that is okay. I really like my current job but there are a couple of new rather toxic senior managers that are making things really unpleasant and I cannot see them going anywhere soon. This is why I am looking around. It is a big organisation. I am fairly sure the hiring manager has relayed my salary asking for it to be matched at least as they seem really lovely and keen.

I have confidence in the department management but the whole HR process has been very chaotic up to this point and now this. So I suppose my red flags are all with HR!

Really interesting thanks! It is public sector. Did you ever experience anyone asking for payslips though? When you say "but we wouldn’t grant it automatically without considering his experience compared to others in the existing team and the wider institution." I totally get this and I have a huge amount of experience in similar roles so feel they can easily see this from my application.

I'm also public sector. We have to ask for 3 payslips as evidence of current salary being higher than the bottom of the band, so that we can offer higher.

It's tax payers money, there are strict regulations around salaries, and how and when an employee can earn over the entry salary. We are regularly audited to ensure we aren't spending outside of our remit. We literally cannot make a higher offer without this evidence.

We can't just do what we want like a private sector org.

It's nothing to do with trusting you or not, it's entirely about getting Ministry approval.

If you haven't lied about your salary, no problem?

I had this at a MoJ job. I just sent my payslips tbh.

Yep - me too.

A bit 'stick this in your pipe'

If it public sector then I wouldn’t take it personally and take the job if you like the role and your individual hiring manager. I have worked in both public and private HR. The hoops are very different in the public sector. It can be frustrating but it also has its benefits for employees too.

No one ever asked to see my payslips :) I always ended up starting at the bottom. But I did often have to get my managers to request payslips from the people they wanted to hire. It was fun writing a case, to me at least. I can only think of one instance where the requested start salary wasn’t approved.

A case could also be made on the grounds that - although the experience didn’t necessarily justify the salary on our terms - the new recruit would just walk away otherwise, having an intolerable impact on our productivity.

I reckon it sounds as though you’ll get what you’re asking.

This is a requirement in my sector (Higher Education).

The public sector position on this seems a bit odd. All it tells them is that if someone benefited from an inflated salary in their previous role, then that benefit can be carried forward into their new role, as it provides a benchmark.

Alternatively if you were being underpaid in your previous role and wanted to find something that paid a salary more consistent with your skills and experience, your previous salary would continue to act as an anchor, pulling you back.

Rather than avoiding issues like sex based discrimination this would do the opposite - confirming and carrying forward any discrimination that the candidate suffered in their previous role.

@pandor it’s not the only factor to be considered- for all the reasons you mention.

You'll find it's difficult to come into the public sector, especially civil service above the very bottom of the pay scale. I disagree with them advertising the bands I think it's misleading. They'll honour salary's when you transfer within the civil service and can internally check these themselves.
If you're an external candidate it's the only way you get a higher salary and I'm surprised they'll even consider it (from my experience).

I’d be interested to know how often evidence of a low salary is provided, but these “other factors” are considered sufficient to justify paying more.

My suspicion is that the low prior salary will be considered overwhelmingly as justification for keeping the offer salary low - but perhaps I’m just being cynical!

I’ve definitely made cases that didn’t rely on previous salary, or make reference to it, but were about level of experience or competitive salary for the skill set (a particular issue for some of my managers, their area was quite ‘niche’ and the private sector tended to be a big draw to our potential recruits.)

Its true though that some candidates -and some managers- are much more on the ball about negotiating and higher previous salaries do provide an incentive to negotiate. I suspect the system could be further improved. Removing the secrecy is a big deal in itself though.