What Is The Work Number? How Equifax’s Employment Verification Database Works

A candidate lists three previous employers on their application. One returns a verification record instantly. The other two don’t appear in the database at all. What does that mean – and what should HR do next? The answer starts with understanding The Work Number, an employment verification database operated by Equifax Workforce Solutions. It stores income and employment records contributed by employers and payroll processors, and provides real-time verification to credentialed third parties – including lenders, government agencies, and hiring employers – under FCRA compliance rules.

What Is The Work Number and How Does It Work?

The Work Number was officially launched in 1995 by Talx Corporation. Equifax acquired Talx in 2007 for $1.4 billion, and the service now operates under the Equifax Workforce Solutions brand.

The system functions as a three-way data exchange:

• Employers and payroll processors contribute employment and income data directly to the database, typically through automated weekly payroll feeds.
• Credentialed verifiers – lenders, government agencies, background screening companies, and employers – query the database in real time to confirm a subject’s employment history or income.
• Employees can access their own Employment Data Report (EDR), dispute inaccurate records, generate a Salary Key for controlled income disclosure, or freeze their record entirely.

The distinction between verification of employment (VOE) and verification of income (VOI) matters operationally. VOE confirms job title, dates of employment, and employment status. VOI goes further, providing pay rate and earnings history – and typically requires explicit employee consent via a Salary Key.

Who Uses The Work Number – and for What?

The database serves a wide range of use cases beyond pre-employment screening. Understanding who qualifies as a verifier helps HR teams contextualize where their own use fits within the broader ecosystem.

Primary Verifier Categories

• Mortgage lenders – confirming income and employment before loan approval
• Auto dealers and lenders – 24/7 verification for financing decisions
• Government agencies – eligibility checks for social services, SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and child support enforcement
• Apartment property managers – confirming income before lease approval
• Employers and background screeners – pre-hire employment verification

All verifiers must register, demonstrate a legally valid reason for access, and authenticate at each login. According to the FTC, employers using consumer reports – including employment verification data – for hiring decisions must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires written disclosure and candidate consent before obtaining the report.

Employee Rights and Data Access

Employees have meaningful control over their records. Key rights include:

• Free access to their EDR, which shows all verifiers who requested their data in the past 24 months
• The ability to dispute inaccurate employment or income data
• A data freeze option that blocks verifier access entirely
• Salary Key generation for one-time, controlled income disclosure

According to Equifax Workforce Solutions’ published figures, the database holds more than 823 million employee records from nearly 5 million employers. In 2025, it facilitated 58 million verifications outside of regular business hours – a figure that underscores its role as a round-the-clock infrastructure tool, not just a daytime HR resource.

What The Work Number Doesn’t Cover – And Why That Matters for Employers

This is where HR teams most often run into operational surprises. The system is purpose-built for income and employment verification. That’s genuinely valuable – but it’s a narrow slice of what most pre-hire screening workflows require.

The Coverage Gap

Not every employer participates. Industry analysis indicates that while coverage has grown significantly since the database launched, small and mid-size businesses remain underrepresented. When a candidate’s past employer isn’t enrolled, the query returns no data – not a negative result. HR teams must know how to interpret that null response correctly: absence of a record is not evidence of falsified employment history.

The Scope Gap

Even when a record exists, it covers only employment history and income. The following are entirely outside the system’s scope:

• Criminal background checks
• Professional license or credential verification
• Education verification (available only as a separate Equifax add-on product)
• Identity verification beyond basic SSN and name matching
• Drug screening or driving records

For employers who need a complete pre-hire picture, employment data is just one piece. A dedicated FCRA-compliant background check platform like GoodHire fills the gaps that the system leaves – criminal checks, license verification, identity confirmation – without replacing what it does well. The two tools serve complementary functions, not competing ones.

Comparing Options: Employment Verification vs. Full Background Screening

HR teams evaluating their verification workflow often conflate these two categories. The table below clarifies where each tool fits – and why savvy employers use both.

GoodHire handles the screening steps the system isn’t designed for – learn how it works. The background check market is growing rapidly, according to market research, reflecting rising demand for compliant, technology-driven hiring processes – which means HR teams need both tools working in tandem, not just one or the other.

FCRA Compliance and Employer Responsibilities

Using employment verification data in hiring decisions triggers specific legal obligations. HR teams – especially at small and mid-size companies without dedicated compliance staff – need to understand these FCRA requirements before accessing any third-party verification service.

Three Core Employer Obligations

1. Obtain written consent. Before running any employment verification as part of a hiring decision, employers must provide written disclosure to the candidate and obtain signed authorization. The notice must stand alone – it cannot be buried in an employment application.
2. Establish permissible purpose. The FTC requires that any party accessing consumer report data – including employment verification records – must have a legally valid reason. Pre-employment screening qualifies, but the purpose must be documented.
3. Follow adverse action procedures. If verification data influences a hiring decision negatively, FCRA adverse action rules apply. The candidate must be notified, given a copy of the report, and allowed time to dispute inaccuracies before a final decision is made.

A practical rule for HR teams: treat any third-party verification data – whether from this system or a background check provider – as a consumer report under the FCRA. The disclosure, consent, and adverse action requirements apply regardless of the data source.

Inaccurate records are a documented concern worth flagging. Employees have the right to dispute data in their EDR, and employers who act on incorrect information without following adverse action procedures face meaningful compliance exposure. Building a verification workflow that accounts for these steps protects both the organization and the candidate.

The Work Number is a powerful, efficient tool for income and employment verification – but it’s purpose-built for that specific use case. HR teams that also need criminal checks, license verification, or identity screening can explore GoodHire’s FCRA-compliant background check platform – built for HR teams who need speed, simplicity, and compliance confidence across the full pre-hire screening workflow. Get Started with a solution designed to complement, not replace, the verification tools already in your stack.

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The GoodHire team keeps customers informed about important news relating to background checks and employment screening.