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Brief Description:

I have been interviewing at a company for position A in Singapore and they have decided to give me an offer. The position A has a market greater market value (2x) than I am currently in. When the HR requested for my payslip, I already told the HR over mail that my salary information is confidential to my current employer and also I did not mention salary expectations details in the application.

The HR mentioned it is a standard operating procedure to request for 3 months payslips and also a question of salary expectation range. She also asked me if I had not applied for a credit card.

My Assumption and observations

  1. My salary information is confidential and the company has no right to ask for my personal information.
  2. Sharing the payslip exposes you for a low ball offer and you are in no position to negotiate.
  3. Some claim that they want to verify what I have mentioned in the application is true for integrity check. But I have not mentioned anything there. So the question of integrity should not arise.
  4. Asking for payslips in highly prevalent in Singapore and I am not sure why

Question

  1. How do I deflect this question of asking for pay slip as standard operating procedure and why it is in place in the first place?
  2. Why do companies have these operating procedures?
  3. Could I request for a meeting with the hiring manager whom I am
    directly in touch with (assuming that they have already decided to give me an offer) and avoid these HR tricks?

Possible answers:

Like I mentioned to you already my salary information in confidential. I hope the remuneration you provide would be fair to the current market standards. Would this work?

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    The first part "Like I mentioned to you already my salary information is confidential". That should be enough. This is HR asking; they are supposed to know the rules and if you say it's confidential, that's enough. If they keep asking, you say "I said it's confidential, so you shouldn't be asking". – gnasher729 Sep 12 '14 at 8:46
  • @gnasher729 true, but if you look from HR point this may result in them considering a less favorable candidate no? I mean like I mentioned in my answer, you absolutely don't need to give information you find confidential. But they aren't required to offer you the job either no? – Lucas Kauffman Mar 8 '16 at 6:12
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    You say the company has decided to give you an offer. Have they done so, and have they offered a salary? – DJClayworth Mar 4 '18 at 4:36
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My salary information is confidential and the company has no right to ask for my personal information.

HR can request your personal information for certain background checks. If you are a person of trust you may even have to provide proof of solvency to ensure you cannot be compromised by financial leverage (e.g. debts) or fraud (e.g. investment bankers have to provide detail on personal investments). This may thus also be related to the mention of integrity, it's quite common for positions where people assign projects, perform audits or compliance reviews.

Sharing the payslip exposes you for a low ball offer and you are in no position to negotiate.

A position to negotiate is not based on wage only. You can always negotiate for wage, if you are unhappy about their offer you can refuse them, on the other hand if they find a candidate with equal qualification which they can pay less, they might refuse you.

It is customary for HR to propose a package based upon your current pay package. Unless your skills are exceptional thus empowering you with adequate bargaining chips, this will be the norm.

Some claim that they want to verify what I have mentioned in the application is true for integrity check. But I have not mentioned anything there. So the question of integrity should not arise.

It could also be that they asked you for your wage, you gave them an estimation or a number and they want to verify if you told something untruthful.

Asking for payslips in highly prevalent in Singapore and I am not sure why

Not only in Singapore, there are many other countries that do it.

My 2 cents:

You are never required to share such information if you are not comfortable with it. But do mind that for some jobs this may exclude you and that you probably are not the only candidate for the job.

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  • down voting without an explanation... – Lucas Kauffman Mar 9 '16 at 3:42
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It could simply be the mechanism used by HR to confirm employment history.

Given that more and more companies nowadays have electronic records and do not issue payslips at all it seems a fairly unreliable expectation on their part.

I would recommend to ask if another document could be provided instead in the case where there is no paper trail. Ask first for procedure and then for intent.

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    They asked for his payslips, they never asked him to provide them on paper. Most companies just accept them electronically as well. – Lucas Kauffman Mar 8 '16 at 6:09

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