JOB SEEKERS Divulging pay history is a gamble, advisers say

Advisers say it's best to avoid revealing salary history to potential employers.
WASHINGTON POST
There it is. The ad for your dream job. All you have to do is send them a cover letter and your r & eacute;sum & eacute;. Oh, and your salary history.
Why on earth do they want your salary history?
Mostly it's a weeding-out tool, said Kim Little, a professional r & eacute;sum & eacute; writer in Victor, N.Y. Organizations have a salary range budgeted for individual positions, and they want to narrow their search to a pool of people who would happily accept that wage.
While sharing information about your past pay may be useful to employers, it rarely helps you, the job seeker. If your past pay is too high, you've priced yourself out of the job. If the numbers are too low, they're going to wonder whether you're defective. The only way you win this game is by having a salary history that falls within these largely mysterious parameters.
Delay answer
The longer you defer answering questions about pay, the better.
Most career advisers will tell you to postpone discussing money until the last possible minute. Besides, what you will make at your new job shouldn't depend on what you've been paid in the past, said Trudy L. McCrea, an executive coach at Achieve-It LLP, a consulting company with offices in Washington and Virginia. It should depend on the present value of your skills. She advises people to steer clear of such discussions unless they think it is to their advantage to refer to a prior salary.
Providing salary history also can pose other problems for job seekers. What if this is your first "real" job, and you don't have a salary history? What if you're switching to a career that pays a lot more -- or a lot less -- than your old one, or you're switching sectors?
Demands for salary history seem particularly nonsensical given how erratic the economy has been in the past few years. Just because someone made $150,000 a year as a dot-com's vice president of foosball two years ago doesn't mean he deserves, or expects, to make $160,000 now as a rank-and-file programmer.
Ideally, from the job seeker's perspective, salary expectations wouldn't be discussed until the employer was certain that she wanted to hire you. Salary history would never be a factor.
Luckily, it's not difficult to skate around requests for salary history. Few hiring managers will pass up a well-qualified candidate because she didn't include a salary history. However, there are those who require it, threatening to chuck your r & eacute;sum & eacute; if you don't include it. That leaves you with the choice between giving up the job or giving up power in compensation negotiations, not to mention your privacy.
If you're worried that not giving the information will cost you the job, go ahead and divulge it.
Tips
Here are a few tips to help you hang on to your leverage if you do:
UDon't lie. This should go without saying. Some employers will attempt to verify this information, especially for your most recent job.
UDon't put the salary history on your r & eacute;sum & eacute; or your cover letter. That's valuable real estate that should be devoted entirely to selling you and your accomplishments. If you have to include the bright yellow price tag, stick it elsewhere.
UKnow your worth. Be aware of the appropriate salary range for the job for which you're applying, Little said. If it's out of line with your history, explain why. If you're asking for considerably more than you made at your previous job, make sure your cover letter and r & eacute;sum & eacute; reflect why you deserve more money. If your research suggests that the position pays less than you're accustomed to making, mention that you anticipate that.
UDon't forget the big picture. There is more to compensation than salary. If you feel like the organization is offering you a lower salary than you deserve, based on your past income, negotiate for better benefits.
"Salary negotiation includes things like vacation, start date, benefits, time until the first performance review, stock options, signing bonuses" and much more, McCrea said. "There are times when an employer is locked down on one or two of these but has flexibility elsewhere. If there is an impasse, I recommend asking, 'Do you have flexibility on other aspects of my compensation package?'"