Over the past year, there’s been a lot of misinformation being spread online in regards to The Work Number. Yes, a report that provides your past income, employment dates, and even business income does exist. No, it is not often accurate. But recruiters and verification services still use it, to try and poke holes in applicant’s resumes or stories.
While researching this, we created a Compendium of everything TWN related, including:
-
Where does the data come from?
-
Step by step instructions on how to freeze your TWN
-
Reasons to give when a recruiter asks about your frozen TWN
Please, if you don't know what the TWN is, please learn about it and freeze it! Even if you aren't lying or doing overemployment. For example, they've even convinced QuickBooks to sell them data on how much money your small business makes.
Videos
Is The Work Number a legitimate website?
Yes - theworknumber.com is the official portal for Equifax Workforce Solutions' employment verification database, which has operated since 1995 and holds over 823 million employee records. All verifiers must register and demonstrate a permissible purpose under the FCRA before accessing any data.
Does The Work Number verify employment?
Yes - it provides instant verification of employment (VOE) and income (VOI) by pulling directly from payroll data contributed by nearly 5 million employers. However, it does not cover criminal records, professional license checks, or education verification, so most pre-hire screening workflows pair it with a dedicated background check platform.
How does The Work Number get my data?
Just wanted to give a PSA to job hunters out there. I genuinely had no idea this existed until I saw a TikTok a few months ago saying you could freeze this info. Basically It’s an employment and income database. SOME employers report your job history and pay info to it. Prospective employers can access this to verify employment history and income.
I checked mine and had jobs from so long ago that aren’t listed on my resume. and some of the dates / info were completely incorrect. You can freeze it on the website theworknumber.com
I’m not sure how many companies verify through this database but it’s worth checking out to prevent any discrepancies in what’s listed on resume vs what’s listed on your work number report
It had every job (outside of smaller companies such as startups or SaaS), my title at the job, what insurance I had at the job, what my pay rate was, my start and stop dates, my pay dates, the amount on each paycheck, how many hours I worked each pay period, etc. If I was a temporary employee, it had what the business paid as my salary and not what I took home. Ex: I was making 13/hr. but the company was paying 19.50/hr.
I was able to see my payrate working at 7/11 in 2004 for 7.25/hr. and how many hours I worked each pay period.
There was also a letter posted by at least one previous employer about my immigration status, although I'm not an immigrant and I assume they do it regardless since it is a company based outside the U.S.
If you are out here trying to get a new job with better pay and an employer pulls this, you're getting low balled or eliminated from the candidate pool based on your previous employment tenure/title/payrate. I highly advise that everyone pull their data and have it frozen. Lastly, when you pull your report, you'll be able to see who all pulled it within the last 24 months.
Just found out about The Work Number, a company owned by Equifax that keeps a file on you with your work history, salary, bonuses, and tips. Once a potential employer has gotten your consent to run a “background check” they can access this info if they pay Equifax for the report, so if you’ve left anything off your resume or are negotiating salary, they might already know.
You can freeze your report like a credit report, so employers can’t see your info until you lift the freeze. Just wanted to share this because I had no clue this was possible!
EDIT: This is NOT the same as freezing your credit report. This is your work history report!
Over the last few years, there’s been a rise in the usage of a screening tool called The Work Number. It’s owned by Equifax, and is sold to recruiters and verification services to provide them with your past salary information, employment history, business income, etc.
Even if you are not lying on your resume or during the interview, all job seekers must stay abreast of what TWN and related services can do to their career. The information will typically be used during a job verification, but has started to be used by recruiters during other times. It can also be pulled and referred to at will, since many of the contracts sold are reportedly flat-fee (or the people pulling it don’t care about budget). This means that even after you start your job, the TWN report can and has been used against employees.
The best way to avoid this is to freeze your TWN report. Please, everyone, become aware of this report and let’s try to stop it.
~https://backgroundproof.com/twn-compendium/~