One in five lie about salaries to prospective new employers

A new study has discovered that almost one in five (18%) UK employees confess that they would exaggerate their current salary when speaking to potential employers. Salary inflation jumps to almost one in four (24%) among the 16 to 24-year-olds.

The Glassdoor research found that this is far higher than those that would exaggerate salaries with friends (eight per cent), partners (seven per cent) or colleagues (six per cent).

Of those employees that would inflate their salary with a potential employer, the average ‘inflation’ is 18%. Based on the median salary in the UK (£22,044), this is an increase of £3,968. Recent figures show that the average salary increase for UK employees was just 1.7% so this fictional pay rise could be problematic for employers when it comes to benchmarking salaries. Further research shows that one in three (32%) existing employees would ask for a pay rise if they found out a new recruit was earning more money than them.