Just another employment strategy like any other

by Christopher Khawand
(Miami)

I've worked for a company which has engaged in this practice, and as a member of the management, would use prior salary information where I could get it as an additional factor in considering the comparative value of two similarly situated applicants "on paper." After all, you can dress up a resume, but you can't dress up the monetary value of the work you've done in the past.

In the free market, nothing is really free, and your salary history is simply an indicator of how much other companies have valued your membership in their labor force. In that sense, salary can be a convenient proxy for ability, dedication, experience, and so forth.

By no means is it a perfect indicator - but in that sense it's a double-edged sword for companies who use it. If used as a one-dimensional rubric for eliminating applicants, companies are potentially throwing away perfectly good workers, and potentially accepting do-nothings. (Salaries can be as much an indicator of cronyism or industry bubbles as they are of ability.)