I've only been asked that question in an interview twice, and in both I asked why that would matter. I walked both times (away from a decent offer in one case).
What's being tested is not 'how did your previous employer value you?', it's 'how good at negotiating were you when you started your last job?'
Additionally, the value of less numerical benefits gets substantially ignored in such calculations - I worked for two years at a job that paid 40k, but the flexibility, atmosphere, and environment were worth the 30k drop to me. There's no normal way to explain that in an interview without it sounding like an excuse.
Next time somebody asks that question, I'm going to tell them '15k and a few thousand bananas'.
> What's being tested is not 'how did your previous employer value you?', it's 'how good at negotiating were you when you started your last job?'
and "how little can we get away with paying you?"
I worked for a medium sized private software company and managements goal was to hire people as cheaply as possible, no exceptions regardless of experience or education. They routinely offered developers 30k to start, many were highly offended and some just laughed at it, but they would always get a few developers who were down and out to accept. Yes turnover was high and most people didn't last longer than a year or two, but they viewed developers as disposable assets due to the local economic climate. This was in a medium sized US city with high unemployment and few tech opportunities, managements attitude was ruthlessly honest "we're the only ones hiring in the area, what other choice do they have?"
What's being tested is not 'how did your previous employer value you?', it's 'how good at negotiating were you when you started your last job?'
Additionally, the value of less numerical benefits gets substantially ignored in such calculations - I worked for two years at a job that paid 40k, but the flexibility, atmosphere, and environment were worth the 30k drop to me. There's no normal way to explain that in an interview without it sounding like an excuse.
Next time somebody asks that question, I'm going to tell them '15k and a few thousand bananas'.