What are your salary expectations? Say a number, not a dodge
Most advice on salary expectations stops at "do your research" and leaves you there. This is the whole answer: how to build a range from market data for your role and city, where to set the bottom of it, the one sentence to say, and what to do when the form only accepts digits.
Michael Vavilov
Product leader with a track record of launching AI-driven HR and talent platforms that scale rapidly, boost user acquisition, and create measurable operational efficiencies.
Give a range, not a single figure, and set the bottom of that range at the lowest offer you would actually accept. Then say one sentence: "Based on market data for this role in Denver, I am targeting $115,000 to $130,000." That answer works in an interview, on a phone screen, and in a recruiter email.
The part almost everyone skips is the research that makes those two figures real. Advice on how to answer what are your salary expectations usually stops at "do your research" and leaves you to it. This page starts there instead.
How to answer what are your salary expectations, step by step
Four steps. The first one is the only one that takes real work, and it is the one that decides whether the other three are worth anything.
1. Find the market range for your role, level and city
A national median is close to useless for this. The same job title pays differently in Denver and San Jose, and it pays differently at three years of experience and at nine. What you need is a range for your role, at your level, in your market.
Two sources is the minimum. Job postings in your city are the fastest input, because about a dozen states now require employers to put a pay range in the listing, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, New York and Washington (Rippling, October 2025). Even if you are applying somewhere else, postings from those states tell you what the role is worth when a company has to say it out loud.
Then check your own profile against the market rather than the title alone. Two people with the same title and the same years get different offers because their skills are different, and a title-level lookup cannot see that. If you would rather do this without signing in anywhere yet, several resume salary estimators will read a resume and return a figure.
Example. A product designer with six years of experience in Denver finds postings between $105,000 and $140,000, with most clustering at $115,000 to $135,000. That cluster is the working range, not the extremes.
2. Turn the market range into the band you say out loud
The market range is research. The band you say is a decision, and it is a narrower thing.
Set three numbers before the call, and write them down:
| Number | What it is | Denver example |
|---|---|---|
| Your floor | The lowest offer you would accept without resentment. You will not say this number out loud. | $112,000 |
| The bottom of your stated range | Slightly above your floor, so there is room to be negotiated down and still land somewhere you are happy with. | $118,000 |
| The top of your stated range | The upper part of the market cluster, justified by what you actually bring. | $132,000 |
Keep the stated range tight. A spread of $10,000 to $15,000 reads as researched. A spread of $40,000 reads as a guess, and the employer will hear the bottom of it.
The reason the bottom of your stated range sits above your floor is arithmetic. Employers usually treat the bottom of a candidate's range as the real ask. If your floor and your stated bottom are the same figure, any negotiation at all pushes you below the point where you would have said no.
3. Say the sentence
The whole answer is one sentence with three parts: where the number came from, what the number is, and an opening to keep talking.
"Based on market data for product design roles at my level in Denver, I am targeting $118,000 to $132,000. I am flexible depending on the full package, and I would want to understand the bonus and equity structure before locking anything in."
That is it. Say it, then stop.
The three parts each do a job. Naming the source makes the number a finding rather than a wish, and it moves the conversation onto data instead of onto how badly you want the job. Naming the range gives the recruiter something they can take to a hiring manager. Naming the full package keeps base salary from becoming the only variable, which matters if their base is capped and their bonus is not.
Example, same answer for a written recruiter email: "Thanks for reaching out. Based on current market data for this role in Denver, I am targeting $118,000 to $132,000 depending on the full package. Happy to talk through the details."
4. Hold the number once, then stop talking
Most candidates lose the number in the pause after they say it. The recruiter goes quiet, or says "that is a bit above what we had in mind," and the candidate fills the silence by negotiating against themselves.
If they push back, you have one line: "That range is where the market sits for this scope of work. If your budget is lower, I would want to understand what the role looks like at that level." Then wait.
That question is doing real work. Either their budget moves, or the role turns out to be smaller than the one you were interviewing for, and both of those are useful answers.
When you do not have a number yet
Sometimes the question lands in the first five minutes of a screen, before anyone has told you what the job actually involves. You can defer once, and it costs nothing:
"I would rather understand the scope first. Could you share the approved range for the role?"
Most recruiters filling a real position with an approved budget will answer that. In several states they are legally required to, and asking is normal everywhere else.
Defer once. If the question comes back, give your range. Repeating the deflection reads as evasive, and a recruiter who has to ask twice starts wondering whether you have done any preparation at all.
If the listing itself carried no figure, the situation has its own dynamics and its own tells, which we covered separately in what DOE means in a job posting.
The application form, where there is no conversation
Written fields are harder than interviews, because you cannot ask a question back. Match the answer to the field.
A free text field takes the word "Negotiable" or the phrase "Open, based on the full package." Both are normal and neither is held against you.
A field that will only take digits is the awkward one. Do not type 0 or 1 to get past it. Those get read as data by whatever system parses the form, and a stored expectation of $1 is worse than a high number. Enter a real figure from the middle of your researched range, and raise it in conversation later if the scope turns out to be bigger than the posting suggested.
A range field takes the same band you would say out loud, unchanged.
Three situations that trip people up
You have no experience to point to. Market data still exists for entry level roles, and it is the same research, just aimed at the entry band for the title. Say the range and name the source. What you should not do is invent a low number as a show of humility, because a first salary sets the base that every later raise is calculated from.
The form says hourly and you think in annual. Convert before the conversation, not during it. Annual divided by 2,080 gives the hourly figure for a standard full-time year. A $118,000 salary is about $56.73 an hour. Give whichever unit the question used.
They already asked and you already said something low. You can revise once, and the honest version works: "When we first spoke I gave you a figure before I understood the scope. Having seen the full role, the range I am working from is $118,000 to $132,000." Revising upward feels riskier than it is. Offers are pulled over conduct, not over a number, which we looked at in detail in whether negotiating can cost you a job offer.
What happens after you give the number
Your stated range becomes the ceiling of the conversation, not the floor. Companies anchor to it, and an offer at the top of your range is unusual. Assume the offer lands near the bottom of whatever you said, and set the bottom accordingly.
The second thing to expect is that the number follows you. Recruiters record stated expectations in the applicant tracking system, and it travels between the screen, the hiring manager and the offer. Saying a figure you have not checked in the first conversation is the most expensive minute in the whole process.
If you are asking inside a job you already have rather than in an interview, the mechanics differ enough to be worth reading on their own: the case is built on documented results as well as market data, and the timing is yours to choose. We wrote that up in how to ask for a raise.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is your salary expectations' best answer?
A researched range stated in one sentence, with the source named. For example: "Based on market data for this role in my city, I am targeting $118,000 to $132,000, depending on the full package." A range performs better than a single figure because it gives the employer room to work inside without forcing a rejection, and naming the source moves the conversation onto data rather than onto how much you want the job.
What is a good salary expectation?
One that matches the market rate for your role, your level and your city, with the bottom of the stated range set slightly above the lowest offer you would accept. There is no universal good number. The same title pays differently across cities, and across candidates with different skills, so a figure that is right for one person is wrong for another with the same job title.
What should I put as my expected salary?
In a free text field, "Negotiable" or "Open, based on the full package" are both normal answers. In a field that only accepts digits, enter a real figure from the middle of your researched range. Never enter 0 or 1 to get past the field, because that figure is stored and read as your actual expectation.
What are examples of salary expectations?
For an interview: "Based on market data for this role in Denver, I am targeting $118,000 to $132,000." For a recruiter email: "Based on current market data for this role, I am targeting $118,000 to $132,000 depending on the full package." For a written form with a digits-only field: a single figure from the middle of your researched range.
How to respond to what is your desired salary?
The same way you would answer the interview version. Desired salary is the phrasing application forms use, and salary expectations is the phrasing interviewers use, but both are asking for one thing: the number you want. Give a researched range, or in a digits-only field a single figure from the middle of it.
What should I say for salary expectations sample answer?
"Based on market data for this role at my level in my city, I am targeting $X to $Y. I am flexible depending on the full package, and I would want to understand the bonus and equity structure before locking anything in." Replace $X and $Y with the range you researched, and set $X slightly above the lowest offer you would actually accept.
