What to Say When They Ask Your Salary Expectations

Negotiation advice has repeated one instruction for decades: never be the first to name a number. It was reasonable advice when employers held all the salary information. It is now often the wrong move, because in a growing number of markets the employer has already published a range and the question is a filter rather than a trap.

The better rule is conditional. If a published range exists, anchor inside the top of it. If none exists, deflect once, politely, and then give a researched range rather than a point.

Why they ask

Recruiters ask early for one reason above all others: to avoid spending four rounds on a candidate they cannot afford. That is not adversarial. A screening call where you discover a £15,000 gap in minute six has saved you both several hours.

The secondary reason is anchoring, and it is real. The first credible number in a conversation exerts pull on the final one. This is why the answer needs to be prepared rather than improvised.

The one polite deflection

You get one. Two reads as evasive and starts costing you goodwill.

Use it to move the information asymmetry back toward the middle:

"I want to make sure we are in the same range before I anchor on a number. What has been budgeted for the role?"

Many recruiters will answer. Some will say the range depends on experience, which is often true. If they push back a second time, answer. Refusing twice does not protect you; it makes you look difficult in a conversation you have not yet earned.

Researching a range you can defend

Do this before the first call, not the night before the offer. Thirty to forty minutes is enough.

1. Collect published ranges. Ten to fifteen current adverts for the same title, same seniority, same city or same remote band. Where transparency law applies, this alone gives you a usable distribution.
2. Check two or three salary sources and discount them. Aggregated survey data skews by who responds and rarely separates seniority cleanly. Use it to sanity-check, not to set your number.
3. Ask two people in the field. Practitioners a step ahead of you know the real bands, including which employers pay below market and compensate elsewhere. This is the highest-quality input available and the most under-used.
4. Adjust for the specific employer. Sector, funding stage, public versus private, and location all move the band substantially. A fifteen-person company and a global firm rarely pay the same for the same title.

Then convert it to a range where your target sits at the bottom. If you want £62,000, say £62,000 to £70,000. Employers hear the lower number. Naming a range whose floor you would not accept is how people talk themselves down.

How to deliver it

Keep it short, factual and forward-looking. Anything longer than three sentences sounds like justification.

"Based on what I have seen for similar roles in this market, I am looking at £62,000 to £70,000, and I would want to understand the full package before being firm. Does that sit within your range?"

Three things that answer does: gives a number, keeps the total package open, and hands the question back so they respond rather than simply logging your figure.

Never justify your number with your personal costs. Rent, childcare and commuting are not arguments an employer can act on. Market rate and the scope of the role are.

Where pay transparency law changes the game

This is genuinely market-specific and the picture keeps moving, so check the current position where you are applying.

• United States. Several states and cities require ranges in job adverts, and a number of jurisdictions prohibit employers from asking your salary history at all. Where that ban applies, you can decline the history question with a simple "I am not able to share that, but my expectation is..." and it is unremarkable.
• European Union. The EU pay transparency directive requires member states to give candidates information about the initial pay level or range before the interview, and restricts asking about pay history. Implementation is national and staggered, so the practical experience differs by country.
• United Kingdom. No general legal duty to publish ranges at the time of writing, and salary history questions remain lawful, though many employers have dropped them voluntarily. Ranges in adverts are increasingly common but not guaranteed.
• Elsewhere. Assume no obligation unless you have checked.

Where a salary history ban applies, the distinction matters: history is what you earned, expectation is what you are seeking. You can always decline the first and answer the second.

When the application form demands a number

Online forms often refuse to submit without a figure, which removes the option of deflecting.

• If there is a free-text field, write your researched range and add "negotiable depending on total package".
• If it requires a single integer, enter the top of your researched range, not the middle. Forms are used for filtering out, rarely for filtering in, and a high figure is a conversation whereas a low figure is a ceiling.
• If it requires current salary and that is unhelpful to you, check whether the jurisdiction bans the question. If it does, many forms accept a zero or a note; if it does not, entering an obviously false figure is a risk not worth taking.

A number you cannot explain is worse than a number that is slightly too high. Preparation is what makes the figure sound like a position rather than a hope.

One final point. The expectations question is not the negotiation. The negotiation happens after they have decided they want you, which is when your leverage is highest. The goal at the screening stage is simply to stay in the process at a number you would be content to accept.