Have you always/sometimes/never shown a social security card to get a job?

To my recollection I have never shown a social security card to get a job. (1975-present)

I think I have one somewhere... maybe. But nobody ever asked to see it. (I always have to provide the number, of course, and sign some form. But for physical ID they have usually xeroxed my drivers license.)

This is not to say that nobody is asked for a SS card. Were I non-anglo and/or in the south-west seeking construction or agricultural work perhaps I would have to show a card. But my impression is that for most Americans the SS card itself is not a big deal. (On Edit: Maybe that has changed recently. I see from replies that showing a SS card is more common today than it used to be.)

For good or ill, the significance of the biometric employment ID is two-fold.

1) There would be a card that at least tries to have a connection to the holder: picture, fingerprint, something.

2) Employers would be required to see the card to hire you.

The second change seems to me to be as big or bigger than the first.

The real effect on people of the card proposal has to come from making it required for employment.

For good or ill.

My high school daughter has to show one to do volunteer work.

Started having to provide both ID/DL and SS card since the 80's. Most of my jobs have been in the service industry.

The employers who asked for my SS card were doing so by the numbers and obeying the law, not because they suspected my immigration status. Although even here in Wisconsin near where I live there are places which employ a large number of Hispanics and it is generally believed that more than a few of them are in the U.S. illegally.

But it's different when one has to bring it in when being hired.

and not for identification.

I have mine put away safely for when I need it then I pull out my hair remembering where I put it.

:)

It would interfere with posting lame things on the internet

Let me tell you, if I got to show papers or piss in a cup, Im not doing it

Had to physically bring in the SS card for two jobs. One job asked me to bring in a birth certificate or passport. Personally I found that a lot less invasive than drug testing to get a job.

I use my social security card and driver's license to fulfill the I-9 requirements.

Just started a new job. There's two options - show a passport, OR show two other forms of ID, one of which could be a SS card.

I can't recall a job I've had in the past 15 years where I didn't have to show an acceptable form of ID to be hired.

I believe 1980 I had to complete an I9. All the jobs I've ever had were office jobs & in later years senior mgmt. jobs. I've always carried my SS card in my wallet along with my DL. I'm now 66 and retired, and I'm having a real problem understanding why there's so much fuss about showing ID?

But the last two I've had both took copies of my passport.

Now I'm an employer and my seeing them is a condition of employment. It's the law.

most of the jobs I've had was offered to me. I haven't had a social security card since shortly after getting it at the ripe old age of 14. One washing and that baby was gone.
to answer the question

I've had about 12 different jobs/employers in my 22 year work life. Can't remember one that didn't want both. So did all the colleges/universities.

Having been self-employed for 30+ years, there has barely been a need for a Social Security card.

I pulled it out at the Driver License office since a SS card was supposed to be one of the acceptable forms of ID, but the clerk had never seen one like it and preferred my birth certificate instead. Funny, this one is the only one I've ever had, since my parents applied for it when I was about 5 years old. I guess the style has changed since then. LOL.

I don't know the experience of not showing it.

And they take photocopies of it too.

the only exception was babysitting and hourly field work for a small farm.

that plus a driver's licence or passport

i do however refuse to show it for most anything else. like the school wanted the kids social security numbers. or the doctor's office.... nope. sorry. it is not supposed to be a national id card. that's what the driver's license is for.

my daughter, 20 yrs old, has had to show hers with each and every job. She works with kids, so maybe they are more strict?

How else are they going to prove you are you?

Which is what I always use. It works finr for teh I-9, and most HR like it better because it's the only ID you need to show. All you need is your SSN number.

Businesses now want a picture ID for all sorts of transactions, too.

Hekate

In fact back in the day they would hire lawyers without asking for your bar card. Only some courts asked for it if they had never seen you before. Made it not impossible to believe stories about people who had never taken the bar practicing law without ever getting questioned or caught.

At least you had the fill out the W-2 and they'd get a no match letter if the name did not match.

From the replies it sounds like demanding a physical SS card is common today. But it sure didn't used to be.

I'm old!

My problem was with the idiots in the admin offices who constantly left employee docs WITH SS number laying around where other employees and the general public could view them. I told them they were gonna get their asses sued for that little bad habit.

Any employer SHOULD be requiring it from you when you start a new job. We have to run it against the fed database to make sure the number matches the name.

I don't know about anyone else, but anymore, it's been pretty consistant in my experience.

No mystery here. That's how the world works. That's how you get paid and establish tax deductions.

TYY

Hell, even the Marine Crotch didn't ask to see my card when I (stupidly) joined up.

and want to use your SSN as proof of eligibility to work in the US then you have to show your SS card, and an HR person will also have to sign the form stating that they did in fact see your card. I've had to go through this drill at least once a year for the last 4 years (being a contractor is a PITA).

And when I worked in Human Resources, we were required to actually view and verify each employees Social Security card. Prior to 2000, we also made copies to be included in personnel files along with the employees' I-9 forms.

And I use my passport for the ID requirment of their paperwork.

Thieves took my wallet and clothes while I was bodysurfing.

This led to a case of identity theft, someone buying a bunch of stuff in my name and not paying for it, resulting in my getting arrested on a "failure to appear" warrant from another county.

I'll never carry anything with my SSN on it again, and I've never been asked to show the card at any time by anyone.

We have to provide our Social Insurance Number (the equivalent of Social Security Number) when we're hired for anything.

No S.I.N. card, no job.

But never, ever to be considered, or to get in the door. Only once we were entering into an employment situation. The difference is very important.

They don't just want the SSN, they want to shoot a copy of the card. I also know this is the case when we're putting students on payroll, as with research assistants and teaching fellows.

specifcallly - vague recollection there was a change to the law that mandated it somewhere in that time --

Standard stuff in California, even a few decades back when I was hired.

to get it. I don't even know where the local office is - I did it all online, started 3 months before I qualified, automatically got started on my 62nd birthday. Took about 20 minutes.

Legally, the SS cards CANNOT be used for identification, an least that was the intention till everyone started using them...


mark

The number is on my driver's license, so if someone wants to see a card, I show 'em that one. I've never had an issue, not once.

I do not support the idea of a federal ID card. I frankly don't see the necessity. There's a difference, and a huge one, between government-mandated identification and licenses. If you're driving, you by law need to be licensed and those licenses carry identification. But one is choosing the identification card by choosing to drive; it's still not a mandate to carry ID.

I don't like it.