I have a public service announcement that I would like to make. I believe this is the correct forum to do such an announcement b/c well, fuck employers. Let's take back control.
In the US, we are all aware of the three main credit reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. How many of y'all know Fair Credit Reporting when it comes to employment records? I bet not many. Recently, I've been made aware of what is actually included in employment background checks. I had no idea, but I want to share with y'all what I've uncovered. There have been some previous threads talking about this but on other subreddits and years ago. I thought I would dive into this and share.
I'm sure there are many others but I'm going to write about the two that I know of: Equifax “The Work Number” and LexisNexis. I signed up for an account with The Work Number, and it was an eye opening revelation. In order to do so, you'll have to submit your name, a previous employer, date of birth, and SSN. You'll have to verify your information as part of the Know Your Customer “KYC” rules. Easy enough. Once my account was approved, I could generate an employment report. That report included employment records from most of my past employers. It went beyond twenty years of employment, back to when I was making $10 an hour at temporary agencies doing seasonal manufacturing work before graduating from college.
What was included in the report:
- Previous employer addresses
- Timeframe of employment
- My contact information: Address and phone number
- Job title
- Both yearly salary and/or hourly wages
- Bonuses, if any
- Breakdown of pay periods that may include gross and net amounts with hours worked
- Whether or not I had insurance and what I paid for that
I did not provide any of this information to these agencies. I suspect it was employers who use these services to digitize and maintain paycheck stub records instead of storing paper copies in some warehouse. I guess like third party outsourcing HR or recruiting. I just don't know. Regardless, y'all know now. It's just another digital footprint that can be leveraged against you.
On the bright side, you can submit a freeze request for your employment records which essentially keeps companies from viewing y'all's PII. I implore y'all to take back control from employers. I've fudged number in the past, now I just say unless you are making me an offer, I don't discuss salary. They can go get fucked.
Sampling of Data: Historical Pay Period Summary From a Previous Employer
