Employee gave fake pay stub from prior job - what can we do? 03-05-2008

A new employee gave us fake pay stub, which we used as base for new salary. How should we handle this?

Rita Risser replies:

In just about every state , you can terminate immediately for lying in the application process, or if you want to give the employee a second chance you could at least re-set the salary. However, you probably don't want someone this underhanded and despicable working for you. This may be a potential embezzler or thief.

I do want to note that I think it is stupid and potentially discriminatory to base pay on what employees made in their last jobs. You should be paying people the same amount for the same jobs, with differences only based on legitimate business considerations such as seniority, experience or performance. I cannot think of any legitimate business reason to pay based on what they made at prior jobs.

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