A clear cut reason as ""I'm sorry, my employer considers salary records to be private company information which I may not disclose" that @Richard U suggested is much more satisfying an answer and doesnt leave room for misinterpretation.

@Leon Ya, I think this is good way of handling thing.

@Leon that is not a bad justification, if it's true. Piling another less than true statement on top of this is not going to help. It is common for creditors, potential landlords, etc. to ask for a pay stub, and it is absolutely customary to provide one, so I think this explanation is going to sound very fishy.

@user73742 Salary records are always private and confidential. Saying that is never a lie.

@user73742 in addition to the above comment, there are reasons why creditors etc ask for those and you always give them to them willingly. Its neither customary or in any way necessary to provide previous employment's salary stub to a prospective employer. If he claims a confidentiality clause as the reason for not giving it out, he wont be interpreted as a liar(as he could be if he flat out declined to share without a reason) nor will this be dragged on any further(even in the case this justification isnt true,like now where OP just flat out lied).

I have been forced to provide this in numerous situations and it always goes against me if I'm looking for an increase. If they really want you they need to pay you, if you really need a job you need to be negotiable. It's a fine line to steer between, but whether you provide your stub or not you can always insist on a specific salary that you want to work for. The biggest issue here is that you lied to start with...

@Leon That also seem right in some sense but why they didn't asked for my salary slip before mailing offer letter and why now. I guess this also tops.

@HungryMind It almost sounds like they suspect you of lying and want to prove it...

@HungryMind just one note, I jumped the highest in salary when they asked how much I want, I said the before tax salary, they meant the after tax salary.

@CsBalazsHungary Ya. That's also a thing to clear. In the same case they said, salary incl. tax...I have to email them to make it clear.

No idea if it's illegal but this doesn't really matter. It only doesn't matter if it is legal. If it's not the line "I don't think that's something you are allowed to require new hires to provide. Do you want me to double check that and get back to you?" is something that will make the situation disappear if what they are asking is illegal.

@user73742 My landlord or bank need to know that information to determine whether or not I will be able to pay them not the other way around. If you want to toss analogies, try this one. If you're going to pay someone to fix your car, would you expect your mechanic to give you proof that he's charged others?

It doesn't matter if it's legal. The credit bureaus are getting into the business of recording salary information anyway so it's only going to get harder to dodge the question in the future as they accrue more clients. The bigger issue is, you shouldn't be negotiating on the basis of "what's the least you'll accept for this position?" If you're worth $100k, you demand $100k and walk away from anyone that tries to pay you on the basis of your starter job salary.

In my previous jobs they have made me sign NDAs about salary and said it is confidential, which I think is illegal, because as you mentioned it, you need it for landlord and other circumstances. However the NDA main goal, really, is to stop employees from sharing their salaries with each other and to stop you from sharing your salary with competing companies. If Company A knows the salaries Company B pay, can "easily steal" employees from A by offering a higher salary. Which could be why they are asking the payment stub to the OP

@RichardU They're certainly not always confidential. In government jobs in the U.S., it's customary for them to be a matter of public record and they can be obtained via FOIA requests and sometimes are already posted publicly. I've seen newspapers compile lists of the names and salaries of every single employee of a state government, for example. Additionally, union jobs in the U.S. typically have wages negotiated by the union that are the same for everyone meeting a given condition and these are also typically public.

@reirab public employment is by definition public.

@RichardU Not exactly - this is country dependent. On Brazil, your salary records are always accessible to your future employers by means of a specific documentation made only for that. I can imagine that a few other countries have different rulesets for this, too.

@T.Sar Brazil has so many laws so unique to it, it should have it's own SE site. Our company got so frustrated with them that the Brazil branch now does whatever it wants as it Is far cheaper to do so than to attempt to navigate their labyrinthine legal system.

@Dzyann If that's in the U.S., then yes, that NDA is indeed illegal.

@Leon I don't think you can claim your salary is confidential information when you supposedly already gave them your salary.

@RichardU if you work in the US civil service then your salary is probably a matter of public record.

@JoeStrazzere Asking for a pay stub and demanding it are different, but no one is required to comply with such requests, AFAIK.

@JoeStrazzere Yes, you're right, but I think most already know that a potential employer has no obligation to hire someone in particular or make a specific offer. (Yes, in the US.) But it seems, at best, petty from a potential employer to reject a seemingly good candidate simply b/c they wouldn't hand over their pay stubs.

Cheeky... like misrepresenting one's salary in the first place to try to force a better offer. People want to bend honesty and fairdealing themselves, then get upset when the company doesn't show model citizenry. The whole thing is a savorless mess.

@JoeStrazzere Could be. That's why I said "seemingly"; we don't have anything beyond OP's word and OP has already admitted to making false statements, so I'm not taking everything at face value... 😕

I have a cousin in South Africa and it seems it is pretty common there to ask for pay stubs, at least for his level of experience (he is still pretty young)

@HungryMind I would say, just move on now, I think better to just move to the next company, I don't know which country are you work in, but I think nowadays in most countries you have a good position to get a job. You might go back to this place. If you want to go out of this situation, simply tell them you are aiming for an another promising job offer which fits even better for your profile, and say thank you for their work on your interview.

@RuiFRibeiro I also work in South Africa. Every time I've reached the late stages of the hiring process, I've been asked to provide a pay-stub as a proof of previous salary, before an offer is made. I had assumed this was normal, so this question is enlightening to me.

In hindsight, he should have just refused to be called on his current salary at the outset. What you earn now is irrelevant to what you're worth to your new employer. But without knowing the country and customs it's hard to say

@Darq SA can be a pretty abusive market; I worked in Africa as an expat and had the upper hand. I never asked an employee of mine for a pay stub.