The Work Number® Employment Verification System

The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) utilizes The Work Number® service for all employment or income verification requests for faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and student employees. The Work Number® 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.

Human Resource Services

The Work Number logoThe Work Number® protects sensitive employee information by credentialing all verifiers prior to system use, authenticating the verifier at login, requiring the verifier to have Consumer Consent and a valid Permissible Purpose for requesting the data, and monitoring and auditing verifier activity to ensure compliance with the above safeguards. Hundreds of thousands of credentialed verifiers rely on The Work Number® for secure and rapid access to information critical to their decision process, and thousands of employers nationwide have entrusted The Work Number® to provide this important service on behalf of their employees.

Need Proof of Employment or Income?

Give the authorized verifier the following information:

  1. The Work Number® Access Methods
  2. Employer Codes
    • UNI Faculty & Staff 17853
    • Graduate Assistant and Student Employee 18051

If Asked to Provide a Salary Key

If asked to provide a salary key as your consent to the release income:

  1. Login to www.theworknumber.com/employees. The screens prompts will walk you through all the steps to help verify your identity and keep your account private while offering helpful messages if you have problems.
    Or call 1-800-367-2884 (1-800-424-0253 for TTY if hearing impaired) to obtain a salary key.
  2. Provide the salary key to the person seeking your proof of income, and direct them to www.theworknumber.com to complete the verification process.

Employer Codes

Faculty and Staff

The University of Northern Iowa’s faculty and staff employer code is 17853.

Graduate Assistants and Student Employees

The University of Northern Iowa’s graduate assistant and student employee employer code is 18051.

Proof of Employment

Proof of Employment for Faculty and Staff

When required to prove that you are employed by the university, you must give consent to the verifying agency by providing UNI’s faculty and staff employer code 17853. No salary key is required. The verifier can then obtain your job title, dates of employment, length of employment and status (active or inactive) from The Work Number®.

Proof of Employment for Graduate Assistants and Student Employees

When required to prove that you are employed by the university, you must give consent to the verifying agency by providing UNI’s graduate assistant and student employee employer code 18051. Per FERPA regulations, all students must also provide a salary key (for more information about a salary key, please read below). The verifier can then obtain your job title, dates of employment, length of employment and status (active or inactive) from The Work Number®.

Proof of Employment and Income

To provide proof of your employment and your income, you must give consent to the verifying agency by providing:

  • For faculty and staff, you must provide the employer code 17853 and a salary key.
  • For graduate assistants and student employees, you must provide the employer code 18051 and a salary key.

The salary key is a six-digit code that you provide the verifier that authorizes one-time access to your income information on The Work Number®. When you give consent and your salary key to the verifier, The Work Number® provides the verifier with your job title, dates of employment, length of employment, status (active or inactive), pay rate and total income for the current and past two years. Income is reported by base pay, overtime, commission, bonuses and other income.

To generate a Salary Key, access the site at www.theworknumber.com/employees or dial 800-367-2884. You will be prompted to enter the employer code and password. View the default password structure. Once logged in, you will select the option to create a Salary Key and the system will generate a 6-digit random number. The Salary Key is displayed or voiced to the employee. A Salary Key is valid for a single use. You must create a new Salary Key for each verifier as needed, and may have up to three codes active at one time.

Visit www.theworknumber.com or call 800-367-2884 (800-424-0253 for TTY if hearing impaired).

Social Services

Social Services for Faculty and Staff

When you are asked to provide employment or income verification to a social service agency, you must give consent to the verifier by providing the agency UNI’s faculty and staff employer code 17853. No salary key is needed. The social services agency can obtain the employment verification information from The Work Number®. Direct your caseworker to www.theworknumber.com or 800-660-3399.

Social Services for Graduate Assistants and Student Employees

When you are asked to provide employment or income verification to a social service agency, you must give consent to the verifier by providing the agency UNI’s graduate assistant and student employee code 18051. Per FERPA regulations, all students must also provide a salary key. The social services agency can obtain the employment verification information from The Work Number®. Direct your caseworker to www.theworknumber.com or 800-660-3399.

International Student Verification

International Student and Scholar Services handles employment authorizations for international students, scholars, and their dependents.

  • Information on employing internationals in F-1 or J-1 status or their F-2/J-2 dependents
  • Information on inviting a J-1 scholar to campus

Troubleshooting

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is The Work Number®?

The Work Number® is a service available 24 hours a day that provides employees with an automated process to handle employment and income verifications. It allows employees to have their employment and income verified within a matter of minutes. This fast, secure service is used for mortgage applications, reference checks, loan applications, apartment leases, government aid or most other applications that require proof of employment. It is quick, convenient and best of all, it’s easy.

Q2: Is the information secure?

The Work Number® is SSAE16, FISMA NIST 800-53 and ISO 27001 certified. The Work Number® employs risk based authentication and data encryption technologies and house The Work Number® data in an isolated network.

Q3: Who is considered a verifier?

A verifier can be any lending institution, property manager or other business with a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-compliant permissible purpose for requesting employment or income information. All verifiers are screened and credentialed before receiving system access, and authenticated at each login.

Q4: Does a verifier need anything special to obtain an income verification?

The Work Number® requires that verifiers have the documented consent of the employee-consumer to access income information. Consent is generally established via a signed acknowledgement at the point of application for a loan or service. And, as with all verifications via The Work Number®, you will need to state an FCRA-compliant permissible purpose prior to accessing the data.

Q5: What information is provided?

Employers contract with The Work Number® to handle employment verifications, using data from their payroll files that are sent weekly to The Work Number®. The information allows The Work Number® to provide:

  • Name
  • Most recent hire date
  • Termination date (if no longer employed)
  • Total time with UNI
  • Job title
  • Rate of Pay
  • Gross earnings for current year to date, including base pay, overtime, and special compensation.
  • Gross earnings for last year and tax years past, including base pay, overtime, and special compensation.
Q6: How does the verification process work?

The following are the simple steps of obtaining employment and income information through The Work Number®.

  1. UNI provides updated employment and income files to The Work Number® through an automated processes.
  2. The employee provides the verifier their UID number, their employer code and employee authorization if the verifier needs income data.
  3. The faculty and staff employer code is 17853 and graduate assistants and student employees employer code is 18051.
  4. The verifier contacts The Work Number® via the Internet or 1-800-367-5690.

The Internet securely displays the information and the 800 number voices the information.

Q7: How do I create a Salary Key?

One form of employee authorization is a Salary Key.

To generate a Salary Key, access the site at www.theworknumber.com/employees or dial 1-800-367-2884. You will be prompted to enter the employer code and password. View the default password structure.

Once logged in, you will select the option to create a Salary Key and the system will generate a 6-digit random number. The Salary Key is displayed or voiced to the employee. A Salary Key is valid for a single use. You must create a new Salary Key for each verifier as needed, and may have up to three codes active at one time.

Q8: What is a Social Service Verification?

States and agencies may contact The Work Number® at www.theworknumber.com or 800-660-3399 to receive automated access to Social Service verifications. These verifications are not voiced but are faxed directly to a registered fax in the agency office.

Examples of State Social Service Programs:

  • Food Stamps (or SNAP)
  • Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
  • Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF)
  • Medicaid
  • Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
  • Housing Program

State agencies and agency names may vary. State agencies will receive the following information; name, address, year-to-date earnings and two past year gross earnings totals, last 12 pay period dates, hours worked, and gross wages.

Q9: Who do I contact for additional questions?

If you have questions about this system, please call The Work Number® client service team at 800-996-7566.