Frequently Asked Questions

ADP Employment Verification, powered by The Work Number® from Equifax, is your new no-cost, automated service available with your RUN, Powered by ADP® services. It responds on your behalf to third party requests for your employees’ employment and income information, most often when your employees apply for loans, credit and public aid. Also, when an employee has obtained credit or another benefit, the lender or their agent may later need the employee’s employment and income information for account review in order to confirm the employee is qualified to continue receiving the benefit or to enforce obligations the employee has undertaken.


The service is used by lenders, property managers, creditors, social service agencies and other requestors, collectively called “Verifiers”, which need to confirm an individual's employment status and often, their income as well. Rather than having these Verifiers individually contact you for each employee, they can go directly to The Work Number.


This service fulfills these requests securely using your payroll information for the highest degree of data accuracy; the information is provided through an integration between ADP and Equifax.


The Work Number is the nation’s largest database of employment and income information with over 1,000,000 employers contributing to it.


Neither employers or employees are charged by ADP or The Work Number at any time to participate in the service - Verifiers pay fees for each verification request.


There is no cost to your company or your employees from ADP or The Work Number. Verifiers pay fees for each verification request. They pay for the speed and convenience that The Work Number offers over traditional methods of manually reaching out to employers.

If you receive a request from a third party, such as a lender or government agency, to verify your employees’ employment and/or income information, direct them to www.theworknumber.com.

Verifiers utilize the service who:

    a. have been credentialed by The Work Number;
    b. have a legitimate purpose for requesting this information that is permitted by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA); and
    c. have a record certifying that they have your employee’s consent specifically for income information (typically this is the application for a loan, credit or benefit that your employee signed)


Most lenders and government agencies utilize The Work Number today, and they often check the database before contacting the employer. They may, however, call you first if they are not aware that your company is now a part of this service.


Please save your company’s employer code, which was sent with your welcome email. This code can be helpful for organizations using www.theworknumber and for your employees who want their information to be verified.


The service is provided on the terms and conditions that have been added to your RUN service agreement.

Your employees can benefit from accelerated decisions on their applications for loans, credit and government benefits because with instant employment and income information, credentialed Verifiers can make faster decisions.


Additionally, outsourcing employment and income information requests to ADP Employment Verification, powered by The Work Number, offers more privacy to employees as this automated service distances the employer from transactions in employees’ personal lives.


It offers employees confidence and peace of mind as their information is provided from payroll records for the highest degree of data accuracy; sent securely to credentialed Verifiers who have a permissible purpose and who certify that the employee consented to their income information being provided to the Verifier.


  • Verifiers obtain consent from employees for their employment and income information during the application process for access to a loan, lease, credit, or government benefit.
  • If a Verifier requests an employee’s income information, the Verifier is required to certify to The Work Number that they have a record of the employee’s consent specific to its request for income information.
  • By certifying that they have consumer consent, Verifiers generally rely on the employee’s signature on the original loan, lease or other application, where frequently, the employee will have authorized the Verifier to access their information at the time of the application and during the life of the obligation or benefit.
  • By providing this certification, Verifiers may alternatively rely on other written or verbal consent obtained from the employee, provided that such consent is auditable and demonstrates to a reasonable degree of certainty that the consumer has authorized the verification of income information.

Information from The Work Number is deemed a consumer report under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA requires a consumer reporting agency like Equifax to provide consumer reports only to requestors whom the agency reasonably believes is requesting and will use the information for a a permissible purpose as meant by the FCRA.


Each Verifier is vetted and approved by The Work Number before they can access any data. In short, The Work Number knows exactly who is requesting access to employee data, and only those with a FCRA-permissible purpose may access employment data. For income information requests, Verifiers must additionally certify they have a record of the employee’s consent.

Typically, lending institutions, property managers, government agencies, prospective employers or other organizations having a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requesting employment and income information about a consumer may be considered a Verifier. Verifiers can also include collection agencies, however the service does not allow third-party collection agents to access employee income information.

The Work Number can provide different types of verifications for different purposes –


Verification of Employment (E.g., a hiring manager running a background check on a consumer that is seeking a new job)


This type of verification provides basic information about an employee’s job: employer name and headquarters address, title, employment status (active/inactive) and length of time with the employer.


Verification of Income (E.g., a mortgage lender verifying income before approving a loan for a consumer, a social service agency approving public aid for an applicant).


The verification of income provides basic employment information about an employee’s job plus salary information such as total pay for year-to-date wages and previous year income if available.


The Work Number leverages multiple layers of protection (including Verifier credentialing, multi-factor user authentication, on-site inspections and auditing of data use) to help ensure the security and lawful use of your and your employees' data.


In addition, The Work Number helps reduce potential risks for employers such as responding to a fraudulent request, providing more information than is permissible or appropriate, or providing incorrect information.


ADP Employment Verification powered by The Work Number is available to ADP clients at no additional cost.


Neither employers or employees are charged by ADP or The Work Number at any time to participate in the service - Verifiers pay fees for each verification request.


There is no cost to your company or your employees. Verifiers pay fees for each verification request. They pay for the speed and convenience that The Work Number offers over traditional methods of manually reaching out to employers.
For clients newly subscribing to ADP Employment Verification, the verification reports provided on your behalf will include current year and one year of additional history. Every time you process payroll, ADP sends payroll information to The Work Number, and your historical employee data is stored and builds by itself. Eventually The Work Number will have built up enough data to accommodate the vast majority of requests from Verifiers.
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