Salary verification
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Salary verification
For a recent job interview, I inflated my salary to the recruiter. Now that I have the official offer, they will also be conducting the standard background check on me. Will the company be able to verify salary information to see if there is a discrepancy in my reported and actual salaries?
Asked on January 19, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
They *can* legally try to verify it: they may legally call your prior employer and ask them what the salary was (of course, even if they do, they can't make the former employer answer, if the former employer chooses to not); or they could require you to bring in a pay stub or W-2 or other proof of prior salary. If they do and find out that you lied, they could terminate you for cause and/or simply not start you, if you did not start working yet, since you committed fraud (lied about something material or important, to get them to employ you).
Whether they *will* or not is impossible to say: some companies and some HR departments verify salary, some do not. My wife is in HR and has worked for three corporate ad/communications firms; only one of those three verified salary in this way, for example.
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