Is it appropriate for a prospective employer to ask my pay history?

NO. HR People persist that it is appropriate. They do this because they do not have the HR skills to actually assess people themselves or the skills to assess a career history from CV and interview. By getting your previous pay history they simply assess what others have previously determined or assessed. It saves them having to do any work.

Asking pay history is an HR practice that developed in the late last Century - progressive companies today have learned from these types of bad practices that crept into HR in the 1980's and 1990's and moved well away from them, mainly because most people find them very distasteful and the new employee then starts work with an inherent lack of faith and mistrust in the new company's management and practices - the employee always has a feeling that they have or are being screwed. Not a good motivator and not conducive to developing a modern companies culture which needs to be competitive - always.

Yes it's appropriate to ask that, and most companies do ask that. There are two purposes for asking this:

1. To see what your pay history has been, what kind of raises have you received, what kind of salary have you been getting.

2. To know if their salary range they can offer is within your range. If what they can pay is substantially less than what you have been making then why waste your time and the company's time interviewing and taking the process further?

Yes, it can be used for the company to know what kind of a salary offer to give you. But there is usually a section on the application that asks you what salary you desire or want to be making. You can fill in the amount there that you want to be paid so they will know what your expectations are.

Yes it is legal. As you said using it as a form of negotiation is one reason. But it is also a very good filtering tool used by hiring managers for less obvious reasons.

People often "Enhance" their job duties to make it look like they will be a good fit for a job. So for example if the new job was going to pay 85K and you have two people one making 25K and one making 75K. Which one of the two probably really did have similar responsibilities and experience to the new job.

Or look at it the other way. Say the job was going to pay 40K. You have a person who was making 80K. Is that person really going to be happy at a job that basically cuts their salary by half. Probably not, so they will move on and the employer will have to spend time to hire another person. Where if they hire a person who is making about that amount would probably stay.

Yes. The history may show if you got a raise or deduction. Also if you got a raise how much? it can reflect your work ability, and whether during the time you worked some place you even got a pay increase. Many times places to critiques and thats when you should get a raise. Basically it can also show your skilll level. The more skill you have the more you would have gotten paid. They can also go off of how much you got paid to compare you pay rate for the job you are applying for.

I don't know about "appropriate," but it comes up about 50% of the time. It does provide the prospective employer something to start with when making you an offer, but you can always try to bargain up. It's just part of the "dance" you have to go through, just like the "dance" you do when you buy a car. Irritating to some, a challenge and opportunity to others.

Good luck!

As everyone has said it is allowed to ask.

However if anyone who is reading this is recruiting and thinks this is a good idea - think again! Contrary to some of the previous comments - it tells you absolutely nothing!

First - people lie.

Second - people get pay rises for all sorts of things other than because they are good. Other people don't get pay rises even if they are good. Pay is no measure.

third - some companies pay well, others pay badly. I have plenty of examples where for the same responsibility one company pays 40K another pays 80K. No guide.

Stick to more rationale measurements and leave the pay discussion to the offer stage.

In the meantime until companies are more enlightened looks like you will have to answer them!

i've got stumbled on that while you're taking your maximum suitable hourly salary and the worst one, upload them jointly and divide via 2 you will get a real looking known. Then multiply it via 12 and bypass from there. i became into never in a concern the place I had to barter. What particularly spins my bearings is a 20 twelve months old dental hygienist getting paid $25 an hour in Las Vegas, jointly as an experienced diesel mechanic in Idaho can no longer wish for extra effective than $15

Yes, it shows the history of how much you got paid. Whether you left a job for better pay or if you made a decision to decrease your pay. They might ask questions about it in your interview.

If they own the company it is appropriate. If you don't like it work somewhere els. Or learn that its life and grow up.

It may not be appropriate - but they'll do it to see if you let them get away with it. It WILL be used to limit their offer.