Recruiters asking for payslips, can I refuse?

[SauRoNZA]

Guessing where you were at, will more likely land you with a lowball offer (if you’re good at your job at least).

A very good point. Everyone always believe they are underpaid hence not wanting to volunteer this information but if anything it will lead to a higher offer.

 

[PaulGherkin]

Even if you submit a payslip, some are sneaky. They will then lowball you on pay and then try and "make up" the difference with other crap, so you end up taking home the same amount as you did before. I was caught like that once.

 

[cguy]

A very good point. Everyone always believe they are underpaid hence not wanting to volunteer this information but if anything it will lead to a higher offer.

More importantly, will the employer think that you are underpaid if you don't volunteer the information? Imagine dating someone and asking them "Have you ever been arrested before?", and they answer "I would rather not say".

It is very common for people to believe that an employer is just going to say, "Oooh, they made X. Let's offer them X + 15% even though their expectation is X + 40%". While I am sure that it happens in mom and pop operations that don't know how to run a business, think about this from a large company's perspective:
1) The hiring manager needs to fill a role. I promise you that this is their priority, not nickel and diming potential hires.
2) The company invests resources into testing/interviewing, etc., and a needed hire represents lost opportunity. They're not going to blow up the deal even though the expectations are in line, because the ask is a few 10's of percent over what they were making before
3) It makes sense for the company to pay satisfactorily, since they don't want the employee becoming disgruntled when they find out they're paid less than their coworkers, or that they could get what they want somewhere else.
4) Who's watching the bottom line so closely? Unless a very myopic owner of the company is doing the hiring, HR wants to hire people (it's actually their KPI, not how much below market they manage to underpay new hires), and managers and team members want the additional heft.

 

[SauRoNZA]

More importantly, will the employer think that you are underpaid if you don't volunteer the information? Imagine dating someone and asking them "Have you ever been arrested before?", and they answer "I would rather not say".

It is very common for people to believe that an employer is just going to say, "Oooh, they made X. Let's offer them X + 15% even though their expectation is X + 40%". While I am sure that it happens in mom and pop operations that don't know how to run a business, think about this from a large company's perspective:
1) The hiring manager needs to fill a role. I promise you that this is their priority, not nickel and diming potential hires.
2) The company invests resources into testing/interviewing, etc., and a needed hire represents lost opportunity. They're not going to blow up the deal even though the expectations are in line, because the ask is a few 10's of percent over what they were making before
3) It makes sense for the company to pay satisfactorily, since they don't want the employee becoming disgruntled when they find out they're paid less than their coworkers, or that they could get what they want somewhere else.
4) Who's watching the bottom line so closely? Unless a very myopic owner of the company is doing the hiring, HR wants to hire people (it's actually their KPI, not how much below market they manage to underpay new hires), and managers and team members want the additional heft.

Also I don't understand why people think this will change their ability to negotiate. You can simply say no and walk away...at no point is your ability to negotiate affected, if anything the odds of you losing are increased by not wanting to front information.

I've secured a +40% increase with my last two job changes while providing my payslips up front.

 

[cguy]

Also I don't understand why people think this will change their ability to negotiate. You can simply say no and walk away...at no point is your ability to negotiate affected, if anything the odds of you losing are increased by not wanting to front information.

Yeah, they’re worried that it will put a cap on their potential new salaries, which to be fair, it does. They have this fantastical idea that without giving this information, their potential salary is limitless.

However, not giving them the info also puts a cap on their potential new salaries, and it’s not usually that favorable (and gets less favorable the more you were paid).

The reality is that the absolute cap depends on market rates, and the relative cap is largely just a sanity check, and is typically much higher than an arbitrary 15%. Eg, if you come in wanting 3x your salary, there’d better be mitigating factors, otherwise something is off.

I've secured a +40% increase with my last two job changes while providing my payslips up front.

Me too, and I’ve seen it done from the hiring side many, many times.