There's probably no European law, you'd need to add a specific country to see if there's anything in the book.

Any time a potential employer asks something I am not comfortable with it sets off alarm bells. This sounds like a place that is going to lowball you no matter your request. This sounds like a big fat nope and move on.

I see two red flags here. 1) They're planning to base your offer off of what you earned previously rather than paying the market rate. 2) They don't trust you enough to honestly report what you're currently earning. You shouldn't expect much in the way of good faith negotiation from them, either now or in the future.

I doubt there's any law against the company asking you, but I'm 100% sure there's no law requiring you to comply.

@Erik quote GPDR at them :-)

Instead of GDPR check your current employeer regulations. Otherwise you might end up with recruiter complaining to your employeer you broke some internal laws and then low-ball you because you lost your job.

"the HR guy told me that is "company routine" to ask the last pay slip to applicants during the interviewing process for matching better the offer to the applicants' needs." HR is not your friend. "matching the offer to the applicants needs" can only mean offer the lowest salary possible that is still a little bit higher than the current one. They are being cheap, that's it.

In some countries it might be considered as breaking company secret to reveal your salary to other company. You should never do this (especially because it's against your interest)

@Volvox your salary is not a company secret, it's your own dam business, but it is not a company secret.

"Location is the EU" not specific enough. The EU is huge with lots of different countries.

Italy, to be precise. But as stated below, a lot of gdpr and labour laws are at a EU level

Not a genuine suggestion, but; I wonder how they would respond if you were to request payslips of your potential future colleagues... Because, y'know, that's routine for you to ask from companies you're interviewing at.

@marcelm next time I'll try that 😂

The "matching better the offer to the applicants' needs" sounds very promising to me. I would like to retire when I'm 36, so I need to earn those last 32 years of salary very fast now. What's the name of the company?

"I'm sorry, my current compensation is company confidential data and I do not share confidential data without my employer's approval."

Not quite the same situation, but related: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/148389/… Moral of the story: be careful what you share with people

Just to share my experience with you folks, but when I was hired for a company outside my country, they requested my salary slip from previous employees as a proof of identity (at least is what they told me) and my salary is definetly not based on these previous experiences.

@Croves: Or proof of previous employment?

@PeterMortensen It can be. In a very informat chat that I had with the HR Analyst who hired me, he said "we do this to confirm if you are a real person and if the information you provided is acurate". So probably as proof of previous employment too

@Croves. Any legitimate company of sufficient size should be able to handle employment verification for you without requiring a paycheck.

@Croves "Well, the fact I'm standing in front of you should confirm that I'm a real person, and if the information I gave is inaccurate you can't pay me, so..."

This might be largely pointless, and already argued a million times on this question, but I'd like to say it, because, golly, this comes up a lot. Also being in a chatroom does levy the etiquette restrictions of not posting redundant comments, as well.

I don't know how it is in your country or other countries but, at least in mine, your salary is a company secret. You are obliged by law (outlined in your contract) to NOT disclose your exact salary to anyone, period. Because of that, in my culture, asking someone what their salary figure is is uncouth at best if you are not close friends with said person.

Asking a complete stranger that is rude to the point of "Ah, I see - you are an uncultured swine that should be avoided. Thank you for pointing it out!".

A company asking an employee of another company what their salary figure is can, absolutely, be considered a form of corporate espionage or something alike.

If a "pay slip" is the piece of paper that outlines how much money you receive and what taxes are being taken out of your salary even under normal circumstances showing this to anyone who is not HR or absolutely authorised to see that information (read: almost no one, including your colleagues AND BOSS) is a grave offence and breaking of the law.

You can very easily with 100% chance of conviction be sued for that. Of course I'm not talking jail time, as much as disciplinary firing and a fine but I am unaware how to word "conviction" better for this case.

So, at least in my case, a company that I do not work for asking for my play slip is equivalent to, 100%, a form of corporate espionage, breaking of the law and rudeness to the point of being almost the same as insulting your mother to your face.

Depending on the company, you can report them and they possibly could face serious consequences. But it will be hard to prove and a lot of people would be too lazy to bother with that, so, in reality, nothing will happen, even over here.

Still, it's a clear sign for the line "Ah, thank you! Please, under no circumstances, NEVER contact me again." to be used.

I can not think of a situation where it would be even REMOTELY acceptable for a POTENTIAL employer to ask for your pay slip but maybe things are different in your country.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk! :D