The employment verification letter is used in a variety of circumstances. This document might be needed as a proof of work letter or as a proof of employment document, or various kinds of credit applications or when applying for jobs. The most common use for this form is when applying to rent a house or apartment; however, it can be used to verify prior employment as well.
This letter must be documented by a third party which indicates that they can vouch for your current job status or your former job status or reliability. Mortgage officers will sometimes ask for an employment verification form, particularly if the person works in an industry that does not provide normal paychecks or does not pay on a standard payment timeline.
Download for Word Table of Contents
- 1 Employment Verification Letters
- 2 Can I write my own employment verification letter?
- 3 Proof of Employment Letters
- 4 What does an employment verification letter include?
- 5 Employment Verification Forms
- 6 Is an employment verification letter necessary?
- 7 How do I prove my employment?
- 8 Job Verification Letters
- 9 How should an employment verification letter be written?
- 10 Employment Verification Letters Are Used for Many Processes
Employment Verification Letters
Can I write my own employment verification letter?
You cannot write your own employment verification letter as this would not vouch for your employment status or for your prior work history. This document is intended to be completed or provided by a third-party entity that is able to verify that you have a job currently or that you did have one in the past.
Creating your own employment verification letter would actually go against the honest disclosure that is necessary for a credit check or for a job application process. If you are caught having drafted your own employment verification letter, you might not be hired, and you could lose a home or apartments that you have wanted to rent. A job verification letter cannot be drafted by someone who owns their own company, and there will be other forms of proof that will be asked for in these instances.
This letter goes by some other names. The document’s name does not impact its effectiveness so long as all of the right parts are included when it is finished. You might call this document:
- Letter of Employment
- Proof of Income Letter
- Proof of Employment Letter
- Income Verification Letter
- Employment Confirmation Letter
- Salary Verification Letter
- Work Verification Letter
Any of these terms is acceptable to use when referring to this document, and you will not impact the legal nature or the veracity of the letter by using either of these names. There may be a common naming convention that is used where you reside, and you could choose to use the most common name for this kind of letter in place of an employment verification letter.
Proof of Employment Letters
What does an employment verification letter include?
A letter of employment verification needs to include specific details to be useful to those who have asked for you to provide it. This form will include some minimum details if it is to be used for this purpose. Your employment certification letter may require further detail if you work in a specific field or industry or if you have a unique job that is hard to classify or clarify without proof via documentation. The standard items that are included in an employment verification letter or the following:
- Verifier’s name
- Company name
- Address
- City, state, ZIP code
For those who work for an employer and provide these documents, you need to be certain that the name and address of the third party who is reviewing or verifying employment for the party in question is at the top of the form. Contact information can also be provided underneath the address entered at the top of the letterhead. This letter will follow standard letter format for business purposes and should follow those guidelines as usual.
Some additional details could be added to the verification letter in question depending on the requested information or the needs of the particular industry that is being described in the letter. These additional items could include the following:
- Employment start date
- Employee name
- Job title
- Salary
- Annual bonus amount
- Employment end date
In most instances, there will be no employment end date unless this letter is being used to verify past work history that it’s hard to describe on a job application or in a resume. These letters will also need to be signed by someone in a position of authority, and the signature will need to be dated for the letter to be considered valid and useful to the person who requested it.
Employment Verification Forms
Is an employment verification letter necessary?
An employment verification letter is always necessary if it is requested by another party, such as a mortgage company, a potential employer, or renting agent. There are additional ways to verify employment for those who are self-employed or own their own company, and these methods will not require a verification letter. There are some common ways of verifying income for those who are self-employed or own their own business. These methods are the following:
- Tax returns (1040)
- Wage and tax statements
- Social security proof of income / Benefits Verification Letter
- A Workers’ compensation letter
- Bank statements
- Paystubs
How do I prove my employment?
As stated above, there are additional documents that might be required for those who are not working standard W2-paying jobs. Mortgage companies and those who are landlords are familiar with collecting these additional documents and know what to do if you cannot provide an employment verification form of any kind.
For those who have an employer and do not own their own company, and are not contract workers, there is no reason that an employment verification letter should not be provided if it is requested. Refusing to provide this important form will likely lead to your loan being denied or your application for residents being denied as well. This document is often very important to the processes which require it, and you cannot complete whatever the application might be without a job verification letter being delivered to the requester.
Job Verification Letters
How should an employment verification letter be written?
If you have been tasked with creating an employment verification letter, you will need to know how to write this important document correctly. It can cause delays and people’s applications for loans or residence in a specific housing situation if you do not create your employment letter correctly. For those who have requested an employment letter or employment verification form, it is important to know what should be included in this letter before you turn it into the person who has requested to see it.
- Header. The top left corner of the document should indicate the name or business name of the verifying party. The header will need to include the full legal name of the person or the business in question. Nicknames or other versions of the party’s name cannot be used in this document, or it will invalidate the statements about proof of employment. The address and contact information of the person who is verifying employment can also be listed in the top left header corner of the letter.
If you have never created a professional letter of any kind or a business document in letter form, you should look at examples of this kind of formatting before you start drafting your employment verification form. The standard legal or business format for letter writing will be used when creating employment verification letters of all kinds. - Date. The date that the letter was written needs to be indicated in the next section with a small space between the top header and the date entry. The date should be indicated with the full month name listed first, followed by the day of the month and a comma. The date line will end with the current year indicated with all of the four digits.
- Company Name. If a company is not named at the top left corner of the letter in the header, it will need to be indicated below the date entry line. Make sure that the full legal business name is indicated here, as well as the address of the company and a contact phone number if you should desire to have this information included. Using an incomplete business name or an alternate form of the business name that is not recognized legally could cause problems with the letter’s use.
- Greeting. As with other letter styles and formats, the next part of the document will be a greeting. This greeting will be directed at the person who has requested the letter, and you will want to use Miss, Mr., or Mrs. and your address. Be sure that you have the name of the person who has requested the employment verification letter correct.
- Body of the Letter. The body of the letter will indicate the employment date range of the person who needs to have the letter sent out on their behalf. This part of the letter will also detail some of the basics of the employment situation for the person who is having their employment verified. You might describe their job title, their salary, and the other bonuses that they receive, as well as indicate if they serve any kind of management function for your place of employment.If you were going to enclose tax statements or pay stubs of any kind with the letter to help prove employment, you will need to indicate in the body of the letter that this is going to be the case. This is not a required step that must be taken, but in some instances, such as employees who receive bonuses as a large portion of their pay, this can be a very helpful way to explain their employment situation and their overall income.
If the employment situation is ongoing and there is no end date to state related to the person’s job history with, you can simply indicate that the person is still employed and is in good standing as an employee with your company. Be sure to end the Kate in the section of the letter that the party who has requested it can reach out to you with further questions and provide contact information that will be acceptable for this use.
- Closing. Since this is technically a ladder and not some other form of document, you will need to write a closing for the letter just as you would in any other kind of letter format. “Sincerely” is an acceptable way to close out this kind of letter, or you could say something like “respectfully” as your closing. The next line under the statement will be your name, and underneath that on a new line will be your job title.
This letter must be signed for it to be valid, so you need to sign the document underneath the closing of the letter. Be sure to sign using black ink, as sometimes other colors of ink do not transfer when copies of the letter or taken for record-keeping purposes. If you have a signature stamp, this can sometimes also be allowed; however, this can lead to some problems if a wet signature is actually required for the purposes of collecting this document.
Employment Verification Letters Are Used for Many Processes
The employment verification letter is used for many different kinds of processes, from credit checks to rent applications and for other kinds of loans, such as mortgages. When this document is required for a specific process someone is involved in, the document must be provided for the process to be completed. It is rare that you would be able to waive this kind of form in place of some other form of proof of employment for any of the usual circumstances which this letter applies to.
Make sure that you verify what the rules are in your state regarding a notary public witnessing the signature of this letter. A notary is not required in every instance, but there are likely to be some situations where this is a required step of the process of creating this letter. The more that you know about drafting this kind of letter or what needs to be included in the letter the more likely it is that you will get the document that you need right away.
