"What are your salary expectations?"

Why employers ask what your desired salary is

The question usually arrives earlier than candidates expect. Harvard’s career services office notes that a phone interview traditionally screens for “communication skills, interest in the position, salary requirements, and other qualifications”, so a recruiter may raise pay in a twenty-minute call before you have met anyone on the team. Online application forms often go further and refuse to submit without a number in the desired salary field.

Three things are being checked. The first is practical: whether you fit the band already approved for the role, because a candidate who wants double the budget wastes everybody’s time. The second is level. A figure far below the band can suggest you have misread the seniority of the job, which is a quieter risk than asking for too much. The third is how you handle a slightly uncomfortable question, since the same composure shows up later in client or supplier conversations.

None of that makes it a trap. It does make it an anchor. Whatever number enters the conversation first tends to shape the band that follows, which is why the preparation below is worth an hour of your time rather than ten minutes in the car park.

Build your range before anyone asks

MIT’s guidance on job offers puts “Know your market value” among its first steps, and frames it as a question to answer with evidence: “What are comparable salaries and positions?” You want at least three independent reference points so that no single source decides your number.

Public wage data is a useful anchor at the start. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook publishes a median pay figure for each occupation and lets you filter occupations by pay band, currently labelled as 2025 median pay. Read that figure for what it is: a national midpoint across everyone in the occupation, including people with twenty years of experience. It tells you the shape of the market, not your personal price.

Adjust from there. The same job title pays differently by city, by sector, by company size, and by whether the role owns a budget or a team. Job adverts in your area that publish bands are the closest comparison you will get, and people doing the job can confirm whether those bands are real.

Then write down three numbers. Your floor is the figure below which you would decline, taking commute, hours and benefits into account. Your target is what the evidence supports for your level. Your stretch is what you would ask for if the scope turned out to be wider than advertised. Keep all three on one line of your notes so you never have to calculate under pressure.

How to answer in the conversation

There are three moves, and which one you use depends on how much you know about the role.

If it is a first call and the advert published no band, ask before you answer. It is a normal request, and the worst case is that they decline and you move to the second move.

Interviewer: What are your salary expectations?

You: Before I put a number on it, could you tell me the range the role is budgeted at? I would rather check we are in the same area than guess.

If they want your figure first, give the range with the reasoning attached. The reasoning is what stops it sounding arbitrary.

Based on what I have seen for [job title] roles at this level in [city], I am looking at [lower figure] to [upper figure]. That assumes the scope we discussed, including [responsibility]. If the package includes [benefit], I would look at the whole picture rather than base pay alone.

If you are pressed for one number, name the figure at the upper middle of your range and stop. Do not talk past it, and do not apologise for it. Resist the urge to soften the number by adding “but I am flexible” in the same breath; that sentence hands back everything the number just established. Flexibility is worth showing later, once you know what the offer actually contains.

The desired salary box on application forms

Forms are harder than conversations because you cannot ask a question back. Three practical rules cover most of them.

If the field accepts text, write the range or the word negotiable, and keep the range the same one you would say out loud. If the field accepts only a number, put your target rather than your floor, since recruiters filter on the number you give and some systems never show it to a human. A zero is worse than a real figure: it either reads as a system error or as an invitation to pay you the band minimum.

Check the unit. Hourly roles usually want an hourly rate, and typing an annual figure into an hourly box has been known to end an application on the spot. If the form asks for your current salary rather than your expectation, answer the question asked and keep your expectation separate, because the two numbers serve different purposes and conflating them loses you the difference.

Whatever you put, write it in your own notes. The figure on the form will come back in the first phone screen, and a different number three weeks later looks careless rather than flexible.

The mistakes that cost candidates money

The most expensive one is treating your current salary as your expectation. Your current pay reflects when you were hired and what you negotiated then, not what the new role is worth. If you are asked about it, you can answer about the role in front of you instead: what the job is budgeted at is the relevant number.

The second is inventing a figure live. Candidates who have not researched tend to name something round, low and defensible, and then spend the rest of the process trying to climb back. The third is refusing to engage at all. One deflection is reasonable, two reads as evasive and burns the recruiter’s time.

The fourth is quoting a figure you cannot explain. If you say a number and the follow-up question is “how did you arrive at that?”, a shrug does more damage than the number.

The last is comparing base salary only. Pension contributions, bonus structure, holiday allowance, healthcare, shift premiums and remote work all have a cash value, and a lower base with six extra days of leave can be the better offer. MIT’s alumni panel on negotiation puts it plainly: “Look at the total compensation package, not just salary.”

What happens after you name a figure

A range you give in an interview is an opening position, not a contract. Employers often return with the lower end of what you said, which is one good argument for not setting that lower end at your floor.

Expect the subject to reappear. A recruiter may revisit it before a final round, a hiring manager may test it when the scope changes, and the real conversation starts when a written offer exists. That later stage is where the leverage sits, and it works differently: see salary negotiation for how to counter an offer once it is on the table.

In the meantime, stay consistent. Panels compare notes, and the figure you gave the recruiter in week one will be in the file when you meet the decision maker in week three. If your view genuinely changes because the job turned out to be bigger than advertised, say so and say why, rather than quietly moving the number. Later rounds are also where scope and seniority get nailed down, which is covered in second and final round interviews. If you are already employed and want more where you are, the conversation is a different one again: how to ask for a raise.