Why do you need to know what someone has been earning previously? Surely more relevant is how much you think their skills and impact are worth, assessed in an objective way, not subjectively ‘pinned’ to a previous salary. If you do work in a 250+ employee business what does your gender pay gap report say about your business? Do you even care or have you ever checked?
So often this is one of the first questions a prospective employer will want to know and goes straight to the heart of why a gender pay gap still exists. We do not publicise or divulge candidates salaries in the interview process, we only talk about their value in the role for which they are applying.
But playing ‘devils advocate’, why wouldn’t you be curious about a previous salary, so you can gauge a potential offer, isn’t that normal? Well, if you are of that opinion we encourage you to think about the following points:
- When you base someone’s salary on their previous pay, you are inheriting gender, race, and social class gaps in pay from their previous experiences.
- Candidates who have taken time out of the workplace or indeed those who have been employed in regions that historically have paid less can be really disadvantaged- maternity leave in particular
- How does knowing a salary inform the selection process?
- Why ask, when you are not going to verify the salary anyway?
- Let's not assume previous earnings in a different job for a different employer in a different location should dictate what value we believe someone should be offered offer.
But on that point, it can be very useful to find out if a candidate is serious about a role they are applying for, you can potentially judge if they are a ‘flight risk’ by accepting a role below the salary they earnt previously, so surely it is useful for that?
Well, on that basis would you ask someone’s age? Is salary a linear progression upwards which once you’ve reached you limit you are for the decline pile? Of course it doesn’t.
We regularly see a lack of transparency in pay and reward in the mortgage sector, and employers offering the lowest figure they can rather than the value someone can bring. The fact that the gender pay gap has not moved in 6 years tells us that something has to change and we must all continue to challenge the recruitment process.
You can hear our Director, Tim Betts, discuss this subject in much more detail on a recent podcast as part of his ‘Talking About Diversity’ series. Go to:
Getting Fair Pay