cv and current salary

[richardfinch]

why do companies ask for a cv as well as current salary details?

surely salary details are confidential betwen an employee and present employer?

is there any way round it when a company you wish to apply to asks for your current salary details?

isnt it just a way for a prospective employer to get you cheap?? 

[Sammy Snake]

I applied for a job a couple of years ago and gave my current salary details on my CV.

The company I had applied to had not specified a salary in their advert.  When they received my application, they phoned me to advise that the starting salary they were looking at paying was quite a bit below what I earned and would I still be interested?

I wasn't interested but if I had not given my details on my CV, they would have wasted both my time and theirs inviting me to an interview for a job I wouldn't have accepted if offered.

[Gilli]

This

[Gilli]

Oops ... gremlins at work ....

What I was about to say was that this so annoys me too ! I understand Sammy's point entirely but this problem could be avoided if adverts & agencies specified a salary range in the first place, thus saving the time of all concerned.

IMO, there is a market rate for each job, obviously subject to skills, experience, qualifications and location - hence the need for a range to take account of the individual applicant.

It shouldn't matter what you are earning at the moment. You may well be earning less than the prospective job pays, but that could be for a whole host of reasons: you may be working in a different type of role, you may be working for a smaller (or stingier) co. who can't pay as well, you may have reluctantly accepted an underpaid job because you were desparate, and so on .....

A skilled interviewer and/or HR representative should be evaluating the interviewee on their skills, experience, attitude, personality and motivation, and then matching the conclusion against the salary range.

To ask for current salary is to my mind an attempt to get you for as little as possible. This approach can also lead to resentment amongst colleagues if individual rates for the same job are set at what the co. think they can get you for as opposed to a transparent salary range.

[acw]

If they think you are totally amazing, but they understand that you have had a lot of other job offers recently, they know the minimum they have to beat to atract you tho their firm.  I don't know that you could be FORCED to give the information.  But i suppose one alternative might be to give a bracket yourself - �2,500pa either side of what you earn. 

[OBonio]

Lie. Tell them what you think you should be earning. It's none of their business really. I made the mistake of telling my current employers what I was on before being made redundant. Guess what. They offered me exactly that. Been on the same money for 3 years now.