Employers have always tried to pay the least they can get away with. That’s not breaking news.
What’s changing is how much personal data they can feed into that calculation before they even make an offer. A recent MarketWatch story covered the rise of what researchers call surveillance wages. This is the practice of using tools to look for signs of financial vulnerability and then estimate the lowest number a candidate is likely to take. The data can come from brokers, public records, application behavior, and more.
This practice is reportedly starting to show up in staffing platforms and in some of the workforce-management tools traditional employers use. Advancements in AI will likely accelerate the effectiveness of these tools though it’s some jurisdictions will almost certainly outlaw the practice (something I’ll keep an eye on).
In the meantime, for our U.S. based readers, your salary history already lives in one place that your existing and future employers can access right now, ready to be used against you.
Equifax runs a system in the United States called The Work Number. Millions of employers and their payroll providers feed it employment and income data every pay cycle. The database holds hundreds of millions of records.
Lenders, landlords, government agencies, and sometimes employers can request verification from it under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. For anyone concerned about their privacy, that’s a major area of exposure.
It’s not all bad though.
It turns out you can request your own Employment Data Report from The Work Number for free. Even better, you can put a free freeze on your account so third parties can’t see the data. Keep reading for more on both of these options.
Equifax positions The Work Number as a more efficient way to conduct the income verification process we all need to go through from time to time. And they’re not wrong there. When you apply for a mortgage or an apartment, the verifier can pull confirmed income and employment details directly from Equifax. This saves them from chasing down pay stubs or calling HR departments. That can speed things up, making things more convenient for all sides.
But the same system can also hand a prospective employer a clean record of what you have earned. Some U.S. states prohibit potential employers from asking a candidate about salary history, yet the employer could still leverage a source like the Work Number to understand your salary history. And if you have side work or a second job, the Work Number data can surface that too (more on that below).
Now freezing does create real trade-offs. Loan applications, some job offers, and certain benefit verifications can slow down because the automated check no longer works. You may have to supply documents the old way or temporarily lift the freeze and generate a one-time salary key. For many people the trade-off is still worth it, especially if you are actively looking or negotiating your final pay package. But it’s another example of a privacy-convenience tradeoff in action.
Out of curiosity, I pulled my own report years ago. The list of who had accessed it was longer than I expected. Nothing catastrophic, but enough to justify activating a freeze.
My point of view is that this is one of the clearer cases where a legit privacy control exists that you should consider using. The broader “surveillance wages” story is harder to fight because the data sources are scattered and opaque. The Work Number is a single, named database with a free freeze button. That level of control is rare. Using the control does not solve algorithmic wage-setting like what MarketWatch raised, but it removes one high-risk area that can undercut your leverage.
If you hold more than one job and have not told your primary employer, The Work Number can surface that. Payroll data from each participating employer flows into the same system. A verification request can return multiple current employment records and income streams. That creates risk in two directions:
Some employers treat undisclosed outside work as a policy violation or conflict of interest.
Others simply use the extra income information when they set or adjust pay.
Freezing the file stops automated access, but it does not erase the underlying records. If you later need to unfreeze for a loan or a new job, those multiple entries reappear. People in this situation often choose the freeze as a temporary shield while they sort out disclosure or transition plans.
The single best and most useful step right now is to look at your own file.
Go to employees.theworknumber.com. Register or log in, request the Employment Data Report, and review what is there and who has asked for it. Then decide whether the freeze makes sense for your situation.
The process is free. If you later need to unfreeze for a specific application, you can do that relatively quickly and easily.
If you check your report with The Work Number, reply and tell me whether the access list surprised you, and whether a freeze is the right move for you.
Looking for help with a privacy issue or privacy concern? Chances are we’ve covered it already or will soon. Follow us on X and LinkedIn for updates on this topic and other internet privacy related topics.
Disclaimer: None of the above is to be deemed legal advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by a privacy and tech attorney with years of working for, with and against Big Tech and Big Data. And this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended for use in furtherance of any unlawful activity. This post may also contain affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
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