Should I tell a potential employer why I am underpaid?

Question

I work in the IT industry and I am considered underpaid as per my job experience and current market rate. When I started looking for other opportunities, some recruiters/employers are quite shocked at how low I am getting (50% less than they expect for someone with my years of experience). (In the country I am working at, it is quite common to disclose your current salary to employers.)

Anyway, there are a few reasons I am not getting the market rate:

1. I stay within the same company for quite long and the salary raise each year isn't so high. One of the main reasons I tend to stay is because I am a foreigner in the country I am working at and my residency is dependent on the employer. Getting a new job doesn't stop at the job offer. Your permit must be reviewed separately by another governing agency.
2. The companies I worked for in the past aren't large MNCs but are rather small local agencies/startups.
3. In my current company, I shifted from a not-so-technical role to a technical role (I am in IT), which has a higher market value.

Recently, a recruiter for a good company has shown interest in my CV but he had the same reaction about my current salary. Like he repeated my current salary to make sure that he was hearing it correctly. Of course, given the opportunity to interview, then I'll have the chance to prove myself. However, I worry that he may not even call again. Please note that this is a company that I really, really want to work for (think of this company as Google/Amazon-sized) and I don't want to blow my chances in any way.

Should I write to him explaining why I am currently underpaid? Or is that unnecessary? I have a chance to send this recruiter a follow-up email after our call and I just want to make sure that I say the right things.

Any advice?

Answer 1

Recruiters care about you (so don't lie)

I was in this situation a few years ago. I'm not an immigrant (or similar), but my salary was a good third lower than the market rate of my area: I was getting 42k/yr. When market rate was close to 65k/yr. I told recruiters (after I found out¹ ), "I was underpaid, sure, but it was a small startup company, I was right or of college, my expenses were low, and I didn't mind: I liked working there. But now that I'm looking, I'd certainly like to be paid my fair value (esp. if I have to relocate)."

Your situation is a little different, but as long as you lay it out there, you'll be fine. A recruiter's job is to employ you and will fight for you. As long as you tell the truth (though there are things you don't have to tell them...like your past salary!) they don't actually care so long as they are able to best represent you to an employer.

It may take an interview (or ten) before you get an offer, but that's true of anyone. Don't beat yourself up too much over one phone call. There's no shame in having "red flags", as long as you own up to them. And in the grand scheme of things, having been taken advantage of its pretty minor. There were good reasons for it, but now two, three, five years later those reasons aren't so valid anymore.

1. _{Early before I knew my own value I said, "I don't know what fair pay is for me, I was only recently told I was underpaid. You're a recruiter in this area, I'll defer to your judgement." After a couple numbers from different agencies I knew what market value was as they all gave me the same number.}

Answer 2

I would say it isn't necessary to explain about your salary position unless they ask and you're comfortable about explaining your situation.

As a rule of thumb, I don't reveal my current salary anyway as a) it is none of their business and 2) it has nothing to do with the salary of the job I am going for - that should be based on my experience and what they're willing to pay.

There are a whole ton of reasons why your salary might be lower that have very little bearing on your efficacy: lack of formal education, lack of experience, a glut of available developers, senior developers with fewer financial responsibilities, financial health of the company, political reasons etc etc.

What you don't want to happen is for your low salary to be used pejoratively as leverage to get your next job. You want your new company to pay you what is fair (and attractive) where you are the best candidate, not because you're the cheapest.

I can't vouch for where you are, but the usual agency position here AFAIK is that they get a percentage of your salary after you'd finished a probationary period. So all things being equal, it should be in the interest of the agent to secure an attractive salary for all parties involved.

Answer 3

If they ask, explain it to them as you have in your post. Otherwise, there is no need to go out of your way to write to them to explain something that they might not really care about.

If you are blatantly being underpaid in relation to your skills and experience listed on your CV it could come as a shock to those recruiters but that does not necessarily mean that you will not be given an opportunity to be considered.

Answer 4

You should disclose these reasons, because they seem very reasonable and show some valuable qualities, like attachment to your company and capable of change.

The fact that you didn't want to risk not getting the residency is sound (perhaps risk adverse, but maybe there are also very good personal reasons), could be bad and risk adverse, but you can balance this with the other changes you had.

There is no reason they won't call you back because of a currently low salary. The opposite may be truer (too high a salary).