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Comment by stale2002 | Hacker News Reader

stale2002

There IS another solution to this. When someone asks how much you are currently making, you should flat out lie. They won't check.

I've job hopped a bunch, and usually I just take whatever I was currently making, and add 15%, and say that that was my base.

If employers are going to play negotiation games, you shouldn't feel bad about playing them too.

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I've always asked for what I want to make and only once have I had a company ask for paystubs to back it up.

That one case was Google (about 8 years ago) and like an idiot I gave them the paystubs (which matched what I asked for). Their offer was 25% less.

I have been asked for proof of current salary (paycheck stubs, etc.) to be included with all my onboarding and HR forms when the current salary formed a basis for my new salary, FYI.

That is none of their business and you should not feel bad about saying no.

I agree in theory. In practice it came after I had an offer, an impending start date, and had put in notice to my current job. It was an onboarding day where I was filling out tax and HR forms. Hard to suddenly say no out of principle knowing it might make them revoke the offer. I was truthful about current salary so there wasn't anything to hide.

Nonsense like that is why you should never let your current salary form a basis for negotiating your new salary.

You do this and they catch you, you will be fired. I am a manager who believes in pay people more. Pay them what they want, not what they were making. That said, if you lie to me, I don't take it well.

Boo hoo. You try to manipulate someone and invade their privacy and then act offended when they lie. Pseufo-moral behavior like that earns zero respect.

HR and management have the upper hand in the hiring process. If you play these kinds of games when negotiating salary, you deserve to be lied to - whether or not you take it well doesn't matter.

It's a fair point. Never lie. Say I need $x to move.

Lol. You have no right to that information. I'd counter with something like "How much does your wife make?"

No, I swear, your baby is adorable!

There is literally no way for the employer to find out... What are they going to do? Call up my old workplace and ask exactly how much I am making? It is against the law for employers to reveal salary numbers. I could sue them, lol.

Employers play games way worse than this.

It is not against the law for employers to reveal salary information. Some people's salaries (government employees for example) are public information by definition. Non profits have to file paperwork which discloses salaries. We talk about actors and athletes salaries all the time. There is also third party employment verification services that salary information is disclosed to by employers. Your employer can use such third party verification services to see if you are lying about your salary or not.

Just because you say that you believe in paying people more, the person on the other side of the transaction has no way of knowing this. Unless you want to believe that all hiring managers are completely moral and ethical, and would never attempt to underpay someone, then you have to accept that the transaction is adversarial despite you not wanting it to be so.

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