The recruiter asked my salary expectations. What should I say?

The recruiter is trying to prevent a very expensive misunderstanding

You are eight minutes into the recruiter screen. The role sounds interesting, you have managed to explain your background without reciting your résumé from birth, and then the recruiter asks: “What are your salary expectations?”

Your brain immediately opens seventeen tabs. Should you make them go first? Give a range? Say you are flexible? Name what you made before? Pretend money is merely a charming side benefit because you have always dreamed of optimizing enterprise workflows?

The recruiter is usually trying to answer a practical question: Can the company afford you, and can you seriously consider what it is approved to pay? That is fair. You also need the same answer before donating five interviews and a case study to the process.

The salary-expectations question is early calibration. Do not mistake it for the final negotiation, and do not treat it like a confession.

Ask for the approved range before you price yourself

The cleanest first response is:

“Before I anchor us too early, could you share the approved base salary range for the role and how the rest of the compensation is structured? Then I can tell you whether we are generally aligned.”

This is not evasive. The company created the job, defined the level, and approved the budget. It has more information than you do at this point. Asking for that information lets both sides determine whether continuing makes sense.

If the recruiter shares a workable range, you do not need to declare victory at the midpoint or negotiate against yourself immediately. Say the range is generally aligned, note that the right number depends on final scope and total compensation, and keep learning.

Use five moves to answer without handcuffing the offer

The order matters. People often decide what they “should make” from one old salary, one Glassdoor result, and whatever number sounds confident while another human is waiting on Zoom. That is not a compensation strategy. It is improv with benefits.

Know three numbers before the recruiter calls

You need a market range, a target, and a floor. They serve different purposes.

The market range comes from comparable roles, level, function, industry, geography, company size, posted ranges, trusted recruiter conversations, and reliable salary data. Your target is the compensation you can support for this role based on the value and scope you bring. Your floor is the lowest package you could responsibly accept after considering your finances, alternatives, career value, risk, flexibility, and everything else that matters to you.

The recruiter may hear the market range and your target. Your floor stays with you. If you tell the company the least you would accept before you understand the job, do not be surprised when the negotiation develops a deep emotional attachment to that number.

Your floor is not necessarily your old salary. Your last role may have underpaid you, overpaid you, included unusually valuable equity, had a different scope, or been set in a completely different market. Price the next job, not the ghost of payroll past.

If you give a range, the recruiter will hear the bottom

When someone says, “I am looking for $120,000 to $150,000,” the employer does not assume the candidate will feel equally delighted by every number. The $120,000 tells them a deal may be possible there.

That does not mean ranges are bad. It means the bottom must be a real number you could accept for a genuinely good version of the role. Do not put your target at the top and a resentment-generating number at the bottom because you wanted to sound flexible.

Keep the range grounded and reasonably tight. A range that stretches from “comfortable” to “life-changing” usually tells the recruiter you have not calibrated the job yet. If the role itself is still vague, ask more questions before you answer.

Say whether you mean base salary or total compensation

I have watched candidates and employers appear $40,000 apart while discussing two different numbers. The candidate means base salary. The company means base plus target bonus. Everyone is alarmed, and nobody has defined the nouns.

Ask what the range includes. Base salary is the fixed cash compensation. Total cash may include a target bonus or commission. Total compensation may also include equity, retirement contributions, sign-on money, benefits, and other value. For a sales role, clarify quota, commission structure, and on-target earnings. For an executive role, understand the target bonus, equity design, vesting, and whether any component is guaranteed.

Use simple language: “When you say $210,000, is that the base-salary maximum or the target total compensation?” One question can rescue a conversation that was preparing to reject itself.

A posted range is useful, but it may not answer the whole question

A range from $130,000 to $230,000 technically contains information. It also contains an entire second salary.

Ask where the company realistically expects to hire for this opening and what differentiates the levels inside the band. The top may be reserved for a higher geography, a different internal level, or a candidate who meets a very specific set of requirements. The bottom may reflect a developing candidate, a lower-cost market, or merely the broadest range the company can legally and operationally publish.

Do not automatically ask for the maximum because it exists on the page. Do not automatically accept the minimum because you fit the role. Learn how the company maps scope and evidence to the range, then make your case from the work you have already done.

Do not price the new role from what somebody paid you before

Your current or previous salary may come up. You can redirect: “I would rather focus on the scope and market value of this role than use my previous compensation as the proxy.” Then give your researched expectations for the new job if needed.

Salary-history rules vary by jurisdiction, so check what applies where you and the employer are located. Regardless of the law, your strongest business answer is about this role, this market, and the value you can support.

Do not lie about prior compensation. You do not need an inflated old number to justify a credible new one. You need evidence that you have already solved problems at the level the employer is hiring.

Being laid off does not turn your experience into clearance merchandise

I worked with a candidate who had been laid off for six months. When we discussed compensation, she gave me a shockingly low number because she needed to get back to work. I submitted her $30,000 higher, inside the appropriate range for the role.

Her unemployment was real. So was the value of her experience. Desperation is not compensation data.

A layoff can affect your timeline, alternatives, and willingness to consider tradeoffs. It does not require you to announce the largest discount the moment a recruiter calls. Know the market, know your floor, and decide intentionally. If you need help framing the transition itself, read how to explain a layoff without sounding defensive.

“I am flexible” needs a boundary

Flexibility can be completely genuine. Maybe you would trade some base salary for meaningful equity, stronger benefits, remote work, a better title, unusual learning, a shorter commute, or the chance to solve work you actually care about. Those are choices, not evidence that numbers no longer matter.

Instead of “I am open to anything,” say: “I am flexible for the right opportunity, and I would evaluate the base salary alongside the role scope, bonus, equity, benefits, and long-term fit. I am generally targeting [range].”

Do not tell the recruiter your mortgage, childcare cost, medical bills, or how urgently you need the role. Those facts matter to your private floor. They do not establish the market value of the job, and they should not be asked to negotiate on your behalf.

What if you already gave the wrong number?

If you answered too low, do not invent a competing offer or pretend the conversation never happened. As you learn more, explain what changed: “After understanding the team size, travel, and ownership of the function, I would be targeting closer to [revised number]. I wanted to raise that now rather than surprise you at the offer stage.”

If you answered too high, clarify whether you gave the high end, whether you meant base or total compensation, and whether you have real flexibility. I have advised candidates to say, “I gave the high end of my expectations. I am willing to be flexible for the right opportunity,” when that was true.

Do not walk the number backward purely because the recruiter paused. Silence is not always rejection. Sometimes the recruiter is taking notes. Sometimes the software has frozen. Zoom has caused enough career decisions already.

The application demands one number. Now what?

If the application accepts text, enter a researched range or note that compensation is negotiable based on scope and total package. If it accepts only one number, use a realistic target that fits the posted range and market. Do not enter $0 or $1 and assume a human will appreciate the rebellion. The system may simply conclude you are outside its logic and escort your application into the abyss.

The number is not your private floor. It should represent a serious expectation you can support if the role matches the description. If the posting includes a range, use it. If it does not, research before you apply and keep a record of what you entered so your recruiter-screen answer does not arrive from a different universe.

Where I help

I help professionals decide what their experience should be worth in the role they are pursuing, not simply repeat what the last company happened to pay. That includes calibrating the target, identifying the private floor, separating base salary from total compensation, preparing the recruiter-screen answer, building the evidence behind the number, and deciding what to negotiate when a real offer arrives.

I have spent more than 20 years hearing compensation expectations from the recruiter side. I know which answers create useful alignment, which create avoidable doubt, and when the bigger issue is that the candidate is aiming at the wrong level, telling the wrong value story, or quietly discounting themselves before the company has asked.

When the offer arrives, use the job-offer negotiation framework before the adrenaline starts negotiating on your behalf. You can also explore career strategy and negotiation support, or bring me the role, posted range, current package, and the number you are afraid to say out loud.