Identification

• In 2011, the credit-rating bureaus do not include salary information on a credit report. Consumer credit reports during the early 1990s and late 1980s used salary information to calculate a person's credit score, but the credit bureaus stopped this practice, because verifying the salary of millions of people resulted in a lot of inaccurate results, according to Mint.com. Also, income has little correlation to a person's willingness to pay back a debt.
  
  

Application Scores

• Credit-rating bureaus receive most of their information from whatever the applicant puts down on a credit application, even demographic information. Alternative credit-scoring agencies may use salary information you report to calculate a proprietary score. These sources, however, are not the same as the FICO score used by nearly every lender when making a credit decision. The employer could pull one of these reports.
  
  

Other Ways to Verify Income

• Employers have other means at their disposal to verify income. Most common is checking the job references on your application. Employers can further verify your job history with a credit check, because previous employers are listed on a credit report. Some employers may go so far as to investigate previous year W-2 forms.
  
  

Tip

• Never lie about your salary, because it is a concrete number and could get you fired or give the employer reason to question your integrity. Omit your salary history if you can leave it off your job application. More important are the job duties or skills from a previous job. Should the employer question your previous salary further, try to offer vague figures, such as the 40s, and put a good spin on it, like you "want to focus on paying off your education expenses," suggests Job Web.