[uriah]

Many if not most companies outsource employment verification to The Work Number. When you get a new job, a frozen report will complicate your background check.

They don't give out salary info in employment checks though. AFAIK they require your explicit permission except for government agencies who use it to verify your eligibility for benefits. I would be surprised if they are not selling aggregate salary data though

[wing-_-nuts]

If they want my info, they can ask me. I would rather them not have this info before an offer is made.

[uriah]

That's normally how it goes. At least, I've always had the background check happen after an offer is signed. It's usually a separate company and they just report back whether your job titles/employment dates match your resume

[ghaff]

I don't know how common it actually is. I've always provided references and probably OKd a background check but post-school my few jobs have always been through people I knew and there was really no reason to run a check except fr pro-forma reasons.