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I am based in the UK and I was contacted yesterday by a job recruiter. We had a pleasant chat where she explained what the role was. We discussed everything including salary requirements, but when she sent an email later, there was a request (among other sensible things, like how much notice I need to give and how many days of holiday I have taken already) for "exact base salary or rate of pay (which can be evidenced via contract or payslip if requested)". I know that there is no legal requirement for me to share my base rate of pay and I want to decline.

Would it be best to ignore it? If not, what would be a polite way to decline?

Joe Strazzere
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SteP
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    When you say you discussed “salary requirements” what did she not understand? – Solar Mike Feb 14 '22 at 20:42
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    If the email looks like it's copy-pasted (she probably sends the same thing to every candidate), you can probably just repeat "I'm expecting £X" and she probably won't dive deeper. Also, for clarity: is this an in-house recruiter, or one that works for an agency? – BittermanAndy Feb 14 '22 at 22:54
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    "...how many days of holiday I have taken already..." Wait, why does she need to know this? – BSMP Feb 15 '22 at 07:30
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    @BSMP because someone leaving their job might well take any accrued leave and then start their notice period. This will directly affect start date availability. But really, all they need to know is "when can you start" – AakashM Feb 15 '22 at 08:25
  • Yes, it's best not to call out her rudeness. Ignore the request, or purposefully misinterpret the request. Repeat what you've said on the phone. – Stephan Branczyk Feb 16 '22 at 09:36

2 Answers2

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Your current salary is of no interest to your next employer, and it is confidential between you and your old employer. The only thing of interest to your new employer is how much salary you want, and how much they offer.

Typically you give a range. If they make an offer at the high end of your range, you sign immediately. If they give an offer at the low end, they have to wait until you are sure that nobody else is going to pay you more. If they don’t want to give an offer even at the low end, then you get a job elsewhere.

gnasher729
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    why would the salary with the current employer necessarily be confidential? – thieupepijn Feb 15 '22 at 07:39
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    @thieupepijn, It's confidential if the OP wants it to be confidential. It's as simple as that. For all the OP knows, this recruiter is a perfect stranger and may not even have a solid job offer for them. Do you give your salary information to perfect strangers? I don't. But even if the job offer was real, it may not still be in his financial interest to disclose that information anyway. – Stephan Branczyk Feb 16 '22 at 09:21
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I think it depends on the situation whether it's wise to share your current salary.

  • If you think/feel you are currently underpaid and want a big pay bump with your new employer, it's totally valid to say your current salary is irrelevant.

  • However if you are already earning a good salary for your position and think it could help negotiate an equal or even higher salary at your new employer, why not share it?

thieupepijn
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