Should You Share Your Salary History?
“How much do you currently make?” is a taboo question in most social situations, said Tracey Samuelson in MarketPlace .org. Now the federal government wants to make it “a bit more taboo in the hiring process, too.” The Office of Personnel Management, the government’s HR department, recently issued a memo advising federal agencies not to rely heavily on salary history when setting pay for new hires, arguing that it helps perpetuate the pay gap between men and women. Using past salaries, goes the thinking, can hurt women who took time off to have children or who didn’t negotiate over pay as hard as their male colleagues. By placing less emphasis on this indicator, employers can help make sure “past discrimination doesn’t carry into the new job.”
If a potential employer asks you the “dreaded” salary history question, the best strategy is to politely decline, said Bourree Lam in TheAtlantic.com. “Answering can backfire”; the recruiter will likely fixate on the number once it has been spoken, with little room for adjustment, in a phenomenon known as anchoring. “It’s horribly intrusive for anyone to ask you about your salary history,” said Liz Ryan in Forbes.com. Do you think the company hiring you is going to tell you what it paid the last person in the job? If pressed, stick to your guns. “Any recruiter worth his or her salt” should be able to evaluate your worth independent of what you were paid elsewhere. “All they need to know is your salary requirement.”
Not disclosing your salary is a viable tactic, but some recruiters see it as a red flag, said Nicholas Pell in TheStreet.com. If you’re not making enough at your current job, you might just say so, and be honest about what you’re asking for and “why you’re worth it.” Turn the conversation to your achievements and skills, so that you can better explain “why you’re the best candidate for the job at the price you’re asking.” If you “blurted out a number” that was too low, don’t panic, said Victoria Crispo in Fast Company. There’s still time to negotiate for perks like more vacation days, flextime, or training.
But whatever you do, negotiate for something, said Eric Ravenscraft in Lifehacker.com. Some 18 percent of people don’t negotiate at all when they are hired, according to a Salary.com survey, and 44 percent don’t bring up raises during annual reviews. That hesitancy can be “very costly in the long run.” A recent study showed that new hires who negotiated their starting salaries gained about $5,000 on average, adding up to an extra $600,000 over the course of their careers. Regardless of how awkward it can be to ask for more, “it’s almost always worth trying.”
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