Advice needed “how to prove 30 year old work history”

I am trying to increase my salary and with a state job merit raises don’t exist for all intense and purposes. One of the few ways is producing a competing job offer. Well I applied for and received an offer from the local county school District for a job that I’ve done for 35 years. The only problem is the salaries are based on a scale for each year of experience maxing out at 30 years, I have 35 years since high school in this industry but everywhere I worked from 1990 to 1998 is out of business or the owner has passed away. other than physically going to the IRS and seeing if they could produce something 30 years old, Because online IRS did not work, only goes back 8ish years. Single in those years and have nothing paperwork wise, no pictures, no certificates, ect. Do you have any thoughts or ideas?
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Random pic from phone for attention.

 

Social security (ssa.gov) should have some of that data

 

^ This. If you only need proof of employment and not who you were employed by, then SS will have the history of every job you ever worked, by whatever yearly salary that was subject to SS contributions by you and your employer. In my records, for instance, all the way back to my first job at age 16 in 1963.

 

Produce a paddle with holes in it, along with your teaching license? Or are we not allowed to talk about that any more?

On a serious note, I am curious. I would assume that if a former employer closed down, that wouldn’t be proof that you didn’t work there, but rather suggest there’s a reason why you no longer work there. If you are truthful about the other parts of your resume, why wouldn’t you be truthful about that? Maybe I trust people more?

 

I need to show I worked for a particular company to prove experience. How can I find something that says I worked for Joe ‘s refrigerator repair company 30 years ago?

 

I think the answer is simply government. this county was one of the first in my area to do something real about salaries and hiring people in the trades. so they went from a scale that maxed out at five years experience to now a scale that has a $20,000 a year difference between five years experience and 30 years experiencce. so it’s somebody’s job to require proof that I worked for Joe’s refrigerator repair company 25 years ago and not Mary’s hotdog stand.