Employment Verification

 

The Work Number, a subsidiary of Equifax Workforce Solutions, is a fast and secure way to provide proof of your employment or income—a necessary step in many of today’s life events involving credit, financing or securing of benefits or services. The Work Number simplifies the verification process and accelerates credit decisions through an online system available to verifiers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. More than 70,000 credentialed verifiers rely on The Work Number for rapid access to information critical to their decision process, and over 2,900 employers nationwide have entrusted The Work Number to provide this important service on behalf of their employees. 

How It Works 

  1. Penn State securely transmits employment and income data to The Work Number on a regular cycle, so the information remains current. 
  1. When you apply for credit or other services where proof of employment or income is required, you provide consent through a signed release to the credit grantor to verify information within the application.  
  1. The verifier — who has been carefully screened and credentialed before gaining access to the system — uses Penn State's employer code: 16442 and the employee’s nine-digit PSU ID, supplied to them by you, to look up your record on The Work Number database. 
  1. In some instances, the verifier must obtain a Salary Key prior to verifying income. A Salary Key is a unique six-digit number that allows one-time access to your income data. You create the Salary Key at www.theworknumber.com/employees and provide it to the verifier. Please refer to the step-by-step instructions on how to obtain a salary key. 
  1. The verifier must provide a valid reason or permissible purpose for requesting the information, as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). 

Privacy & Security 

The Work Number uses 128-bit SSL encryption in all of the account areas of their site where your personal information is being exchanged. In addition, The Work Number has a detailed privacy policy that tells you what they do, and more importantly, what they do not do with information they gather while you are on their website. 

They also use very stringent data security standards and physical building security to protect the computer equipment and their data center. 

But, the most obvious examples of their commitment to security may be the many security conscious employers from both the public and private sectors that choose The Work Number as a service for their employees. 

Need Help? 

The Work Number Client Service Center is available Monday – Friday; 7am – 8pm (CT) at 800.367.2884. For TTY–hearing impaired call 800.424.0253.