Should You Lie About Your Current Salary?

The answer to this question should be obvious, but I’ll discuss it anyway.

When you are asked by a recruiter or a hiring manager about your current salary, how should you answer, particularly if you are currently underpaid? Some people feel tempted to stretch the truth and state what they feel they should be making instead of what they’re actually making.

What are the possible ramifications of such a little white lie? Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, companies can in many cases verify your previous salary through means both legitimate and otherwise. Background checks may include a salary investigation, and of course they could ask you directly for your past W-2 form or pay stubs. And Murphy’s law being what it is, if you don’t want them to verify your salary, they will.

So if the company discovers your fib, they’ll think – if the candidate misrepresented his previous salary, what else might he be misrepresenting? Hence if you bluff about your pay, it's a gamble and you should expect to be called on it. It's no better than saying that you're still employed when you’re not. In both cases you're jockeying to make yourself look better and being dishonest in doing so.

Secondly, previous salary is just one data point when a company considers what salary to offer. For instance, in my case usually I'll just offer the candidate what I think they're worth. Although, if that amount is less than their previous salary, I usually won't bother unless there's reason to believe the candidate will take a pay cut.

Conversely, if it looks like the candidate was underpaid at their previous position, I will not exploit that fact by offering them less. We try to have a reasonable amount of pay parity around here, at least in terms of starting salaries for various positions. And after all, if we do underpay a candidate, chances are they will be disgruntled and are more likely to bolt for a new job shortly.

To further make the case for honesty, let me discuss a hypothetical situation. Say that you're currently making $60K, but feel you should be making closer to $80K. So you interview for a new position and claim that your current pay is $80K and you're looking for $80K+. But it turns out I think you're worth maybe $75K, so I pass on making you an offer that seems to be less than your current pay. But fact is, you might have been happy with a jump from your current $60K up to $75K! Too bad.

So what should you do if you feel you are underpaid, and that divulging your pay will adversely affect your negotiating ability? Well, for one you can point out your benefits package if it’s particularly generous. You can also point to any stock options or profit sharing. And if you have a relatively predictable bonus, you can include that as part of your “total pay” – unless the recruiter asks you to break down your pay between base and bonus.