Salary slip when applying for jobs?

E

envo

Expert Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
3,265
Reaction score
437
I'm looking for another dev job, since I'm comfy where I am, I'm browsing, but seriously considering offers.

Why do most people ask for your salary slip when applying for a job? Surely if I make 89000 a month and want to seriously consider a lower-stress job at 40000 a month that's my choice? Same in reverse, if my skillset and experience justifies 40000 and I earn 25000 because that's the highest I could get in a pinch 4 years ago (and hasn't changed), what does it matter?

This is putting me off of a lot of very cool companies to work for.
 
envo said:
I'm looking for another dev job, since I'm comfy where I am, I'm browsing, but seriously considering offers.

Why do most people ask for your salary slip when applying for a job? Surely if I make 89000 a month and want to seriously consider a lower-stress job at 40000 a month that's my choice? Same in reverse, if my skillset and experience justifies 40000 and I earn 25000 because that's the highest I could get in a pinch 4 years ago (and hasn't changed), what does it matter?

This is putting me off of a lot of very cool companies to work for.
Click to expand...

haha.

That's not how it works. Business want you at the lowest possible cost. So they will offer you -+12% higher than what's on your payslip regardless of how much value you can add to the organization.

All you can really do is make sure you have multiple offers before you choose one. Don't just take the first one that comes along. Quite often businesses will have a salary range when looking for new hires, so if you come in under that they score, so just try to negotiate based on how much you can add to the new organization, not on how much you got paid at your past company.
 
envo said:
I'm looking for another dev job, since I'm comfy where I am, I'm browsing, but seriously considering offers.

Why do most people ask for your salary slip when applying for a job? Surely if I make 89000 a month and want to seriously consider a lower-stress job at 40000 a month that's my choice? Same in reverse, if my skillset and experience justifies 40000 and I earn 25000 because that's the highest I could get in a pinch 4 years ago (and hasn't changed), what does it matter?

This is putting me off of a lot of very cool companies to work for.
Click to expand...

IMO it should be illegal to ask for payslips and in many countries it is. It's personal information that you shouldn't have to share. Unfortunately most HR dept use that information as the ONLY measure of what you're worth and they will simply add 10% to that figure when they give you an offer.
 
Yes, but apparently these salary slip requests are requirements from the company themselves? It takes bargaining power entirely out of my hands if they are just going to offer me 12% more than I currently get. Which won't justify a move on my part since 12% will only push me into the next tax bracket and I might as just wait 6 months and earn the same here as with going through all the effort going to the new company.
 
Just say no. Or ask them for a full financial report of the company in return.
 
icyrus said:
Just say no. Or ask them for a full financial report of the company in return.
Click to expand...

If it's a public company than these figures will be available regardless.

They'll chuckle and give you a copy of their annual report.
 
Necropolis said:
If it's a public company than these figures will be available regardless.

They'll chuckle and give you a copy of their annual report.
Click to expand...

lol yes, it's a public company listed on the JSE

To be honest, the offer / salary range shown is actually 12% higher than my current salary, I just think it's ridiculous they ask you for it in the first place... like they're doing me the favor of offering me a job. I'm doing THEM the favor of offering them my skills at the price they're willing to pay for to enrich their company even further.

Some companies must think all of us are dumb drones just grateful to be graced with their presence
 
envo said:
Yes, but apparently these salary slip requests are requirements from the company themselves? It takes bargaining power entirely out of my hands if they are just going to offer me 12% more than I currently get. Which won't justify a move on my part since 12% will only push me into the next tax bracket and I might as just wait 6 months and earn the same here as with going through all the effort going to the new company.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you which is why your 1st job makes or breaks you in terms of salary as it sets the bar from which your increases will be max 10-30% per hop and increases within job inflation-company max which they usually define with targets to achieve.

Now whats interesting is that technically a company cannot renegade on an offer made post fact. i.e. if an offer letter comes in for x and they notice u getting y which is not within their corporate policy % of increase for hires then they run into the labour law. So they usually ask for your salary slip upfront.

Now to the more contentious issue.. what is really your worth? Larger corporates will tell you they have brackets for experience wherein your salary is expected to be in and guides them when making an offer along with the corp policy of range of % they allowed to offer.. BUT this flies out of the door when u are forced to take a ridiculous offer just to be employed after graduating. <-- this is why i say, you kinda screwed when employed for peanuts as a 1st job because it forces you to job hop till you either get to a decent company who will have brackets which they employ at which ensures your entry salary starts decently even tho previous was nothing or hop enough to get it to the place it needs to be but employers become weary of people unless u have a fantastic reputation which actually works to your favour particularly if scarce skill/limited skills in a small sector.. or you just that good.
 
I'll laugh at them if they offer me 12% - in the last 4 years my average annual increases were way more than that.

Agreed with OP, takes bargaining power away and should be illegal.
 
I ran my own business for 3 years after I was an I.T Manager in the UK earning roughly R55k a month. The "take anything I can get" was at R32k CTC so that I can feed my wife and kids when my business tanked. Time was a factor with this unfortunately. With my current company I've only received inflation-based pay rises, which is why I'm looking elsewhere. At least time isn't a factor here.
 
SykomantiS said:
I'll laugh at them if they offer me 12% - in the last 4 years my average annual increases were way more than that.

Agreed with OP, takes bargaining power away and should be illegal.
Click to expand...

When I applied at Eskom, not only did they demand a salary slip, but they also contacted my current employer at the time behind my back for references and sent them a questionaire sheet to rate me. Obviously my employer gave bad scores (which is in itself illegal I'm told) to try and keep Eskom from hiring me. Unfortunately for them, the manager doing the hiring at Eskom worked at my firm too.
 
Last edited:
Its a problem for sure, but how is 10-12% incentive to move?!

My previous boss said he'd move for nothing less than 20%. So that's been my basis since, 6-10% increases are normal in tech.

Recently something on my mind has been the depreciation of the rand to other markets. If you look at the dollar/pound for example, look at their average year on year figures and try make sure that in real world terms you are also progressing.
Say for example a year ago it was R18/£, but today its R21/£. That's 16% depreciation of the currency, which means that unless you get a 16% increase you're worse off than you were a year ago in terms of real world buying power external to RSA. Obviously inflation in SA isn't that bad, but its just something to keep in mind, and something that I've been contemplating recently.
 
When you are given the contract to sign .... its an offer of employment.

Some employers get a bit ahead of themselves and treat future employees as drones (as mentioned). They believe they are doing you a favour.

If they want your previous payslip, I think the question you need ask is .... do I want to work for these schmucks.

Also .... get that contract sorted BEFORE you start. I worked for a guy once who promised all sorts of stuff - gave it to me on an unsigned separate sheet, then denied it was binding.

As the contract said my resignation needed to be by 12h00 on the first working day of the month, I collected my 13th cheque in December, went on leave for 3 weeks in Jan, gave him the resignation on the Monday in the last week, and 5 days later I was gone, like an unlocked BMW in SOWETO.
 
envo said:
I'm looking for another dev job, since I'm comfy where I am, I'm browsing, but seriously considering offers.

Why do most people ask for your salary slip when applying for a job? Surely if I make 89000 a month and want to seriously consider a lower-stress job at 40000 a month that's my choice? Same in reverse, if my skillset and experience justifies 40000 and I earn 25000 because that's the highest I could get in a pinch 4 years ago (and hasn't changed), what does it matter?

This is putting me off of a lot of very cool companies to work for.
Click to expand...

While I don't think it should be a requirement, I can see the reason for companies wanting this (apart from just "+12%ing" you). Previous salary is a good indicator of your level, and provides additional information to the hiring and interview processes. While I believe that any good company should heavily weight their interview process over anything else, no interview will give the full story, and previous salary gives a strong indicator of whether or not something may be off. It will also inevitably be used to cap the increase that they are willing to give you, but it's your choice to accept it or not. The cap can easily be much higher than what you currently earn. Working in the hiring side, I've never seen anyone push for an incremental increase - if we want to hire, we ask for expectations and see if interviews, previous salary and the prevailing wage justify it. I've seen offers of more than 2x for very good candidates.

My advice is to give them your payslip, and make sure they know what number you expect beforehand. If they think the number is outrageous before they interview you, and you realistically don't, then it's not a company you should want to work for. If they think the number is outrageous after they interview you, then you should consider whether or not you are overpricing yourself or if they are underpricing you, and either revise your expectations or move on.

Not giving them your payslip on "moral grounds" is something you should always have the right to do, but in my experience, generally doesn't work out well for th candidate - it comes across as though th candidate has something to hide or is taking a chance. Yes, it is technically personal information, but if it is in the ballpark of expectations, the specific number shouldn't really hold any importance to either side, if it is not in th ballpark, the employee has motivation to hide it, which means that refusing to give it, is generally considerd suspicious (whether you like it or not).
 
Last edited:
Cicero said:
Its a problem for sure, but how is 10-12% incentive to move?!

My previous boss said he'd move for nothing less than 20%. So that's been my basis since, 6-10% increases are normal in tech.

Recently something on my mind has been the depreciation of the rand to other markets. If you look at the dollar/pound for example, look at their average year on year figures and try make sure that in real world terms you are also progressing.
Say for example a year ago it was R18/£, but today its R21/£. That's 16% depreciation of the currency, which means that unless you get a 16% increase you're worse off than you were a year ago in terms of real world buying power external to RSA. Obviously inflation in SA isn't that bad, but its just something to keep in mind, and something that I've been contemplating recently.
Click to expand...

Good points - I would only consider "getting ahead" by a year or two incentive to move if you either hate your current job, or for some reason believe that there are more opportunities in the other company despite the lowball starting offer. My take is that a company needs to pay you for the risk of moving, and the aggravation of turning your life upsidendown.
 
envo said:
lol yes, it's a public company listed on the JSE

To be honest, the offer / salary range shown is actually 12% higher than my current salary, I just think it's ridiculous they ask you for it in the first place... like they're doing me the favor of offering me a job. I'm doing THEM the favor of offering them my skills at the price they're willing to pay for to enrich their company even further.

Some companies must think all of us are dumb drones just grateful to be graced with their presence
Click to expand...

It's a two way street - like any transaction, you sell only for what you believe you are worth, and see if someone is willing to buy. If no one is willing to buy, you are mid pricing yourself to the market - you can either lower your price or choose not to transact. Don't get into the mind set that you are doing them a favour, and similarly, don't believe that they are doing you one - the deal should be equitable. The very usage of the word "favour" on either side means that someone is getting screwed (i.e., you if you believe you are doing them a favor - they should pay you enough to not have you believe that this is the case).
 
Last edited:
I disagree with having to give a payslip as well. I've taken the stance of not providing, and if they don't like it then tough.

I don't see how what you earn makes a difference, other than the company trying to get you cheaply. If I change jobs, I have a salary n mind that I want to earn, if company is not willing to offer it, then we say thank you and go our separate ways. What I currently earn is irrelevant.
 
These days companies tend to advertise jobs with high specs - e.g. high qualifications, many years experience. When they then see your payslip and you have been earning a poor salary compared to market, it is easy to justify offering you a 12% increase even if they were prepared to offer more. They can just state where you fall short on their high requirements like you only having 3 years experience vs the 5+ years experience in their ad.
 
cguy said:
My advice is to give them your payslip, and make sure they know what number you expect beforehand. If they think the number is outrageous before they interview you, and you realistically don't, then it's not a company you should want to work for. If they think the number is outrageous after they interview you, then you should consider whether or not you are overpricing yourself or if they are underpricing you, and either revise your expectations or move on.
Click to expand...

Best response so far.

I like knowing the salary range before anything else. It's up to you to justify where you slot in there, but you should know that beforehand too..

Why talk to someone about an awesome role for which they're not prepared to pay for?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X