"What Are Your Salary Expectations?" How to Answer in a Screening Call

When a recruiter asks "what are your salary expectations?", the strongest answer is a researched range whose bottom you would genuinely accept, stated calmly and without apology, ideally after one polite attempt to hear their budget first. You do not have to blurt a single number, you do not have to disclose what you earn now, and in a growing number of places the law says they cannot even ask what you earn now.

Short answer:

• Try once to flip it: ask what range they have budgeted for the level.
• If they hold firm, give a range, not a point. Anchor the bottom at or above the market rate you researched, never at what you currently make.
• Keep the whole band inside what you would actually sign for, because they can hold you to the low end.
• Match the answer to local norms: some regions require the employer to post a range first and forbid asking your pay history; others still ask for it openly.

What a recruiter is really testing

This question arrives early, usually in the first fifteen minutes of a screening call, and it is rarely an offer. It is a filter. The recruiter is checking three things at once: whether your expectations fit the band already approved for the role, whether you are anchored so far above it that the conversation is a waste of both calendars, and whether you have done enough homework to talk about money like an adult.

That framing matters because it tells you what a good answer optimises for. You are not negotiating yet. You are staying in the pool while giving away as little pricing information as you reasonably can. A number that is too low prices you under the band and can cap every later step. A number that is too high, with no evidence behind it, gets you screened out before anyone who could actually approve it has heard your name.

The number you say first is the ceiling of the conversation, not the floor. Say it about your research, not about your history.

The recruiter also learns something from how you answer. A candidate who gives a tight, evidence-backed range signals that the eventual negotiation will be calm and factual. A candidate who freezes, over-explains, or apologises signals the opposite. You are being read on composure as much as on the figure.

The one rule that survives every situation

Anchor on the market, never on your past pay. Your current salary is the single most dangerous number you can introduce, because once it is on the table it becomes the gravity well every later figure orbits. If you are underpaid today, your history drags the offer down. If you happen to be well paid, it can price you out. Either way it replaces the question that should decide your pay, which is what this role is worth, with the question of what your last employer happened to pay.

This is exactly why so many jurisdictions now separate the two. Employers may ask what you want; a rising number of them may not ask what you make. Build your answer on the first and you are aligned with the direction the law itself is moving.

Deflect or name a number

Your first move, when you can afford it, is to ask them to go first. Whoever names a number first sets the anchor, and there is no rule that says it has to be you. But deflection has a shelf life; push it twice and you look evasive. Use this quick decision:

Notice that only one row ends in silence and only one ends in a single number, and that single number is the top of your band, entered where a form forces one value. Everywhere a human is listening, you answer with a range.

Building the range you will actually say

A good range is not a wish and a bigger wish. It is three researched numbers turned into a band you can defend. Start from the median total compensation you found for this exact level and location, add a credible upper figure from the same sources, and set a private floor below which you would walk. Then construct the band so its bottom is never below the market median and its top sits just above the highest real figure you found, so you never cap yourself under the market.

// Build the range you say out loud from three researched numbers.
// marketMid:  median total comp for THIS level and region (from your research)
// marketHigh: a credible upper-quartile figure from the same sources
// floor:      the least you would sign for without walking away
function expectationRange({ marketMid, marketHigh, floor }) {
  const low = Math.max(floor, marketMid);        // never anchor below the market median
  const high = Math.round(marketHigh * 1.05);    // small headroom above the top you found
  return { low, high, spread: high - low };
}

// A senior engineer who researched 120k median, 150k upper, and needs at least 110k:
expectationRange({ marketMid: 120000, marketHigh: 150000, floor: 110000 });
// => { low: 120000, high: 157500, spread: 37500 }

The output is the band you say: 120 to 158, rounded to something speakable like "120 to 155." The floor of 110 never appears, because your floor is a walk-away line for you alone, not an anchor you hand to the other side. The one hazard to respect is that recruiters tend to hear the bottom of any range you state. Research on posted pay bands found that candidates shown narrower ranges negotiated less and settled nearer the midpoint, so keep your band tight enough to be credible but never let its floor dip under the pay you would actually accept, because the low end is where offers cluster.

There is a reason a range beats a single figure beyond mere flexibility. A well-placed range acts as an anchor while still sounding reasonable. Negotiation researchers at the Program on Negotiation describe a "non-offer offer," a line like "correct me if I am mistaken, but I have heard people with my background often earn between X and Y," that plants a high reference point without the confrontation of a hard demand. The range is doing quiet work even as it sounds accommodating.

A recruiter screen, played out

Here is how the pieces fit in a real fifteen-minute call. Naomi is a senior data engineer. She researched her level in her city and found a median around 120k and strong candidates near 150k, and she privately decided she would not move for less than 118k.

Recruiter: So, what are your salary expectations for this role?

Naomi: Happy to get into that. To make sure I aim at the right level, what range has the team budgeted for this position?

Recruiter: We keep that flexible, honestly. I would love to hear your number first.

Naomi: Understood. Based on the market for a senior data engineer in this region, I am targeting somewhere between 120 and 155, depending on the total package and scope.

Recruiter: That is workable at the senior level. Can I ask what you are on currently?

Naomi: I would rather anchor this on the role than on my current package, since the scope here looks broader. The 120 to 155 range reflects what I am seeing for this kind of position.

Recruiter: Fair enough. I will put you forward at senior.

Naomi deflected exactly once, gave a range instead of a point, declined the current-pay question without a fight, and re-stated her band as her closing line so it was the last number left in the recruiter's ear. She never revealed her 118k floor and never named what she earns today. That is the whole technique in one exchange.

The same question sounds different by region

careerprep readers work everywhere, and this is one of the few interview questions whose legal footing genuinely changes with your postcode. Answer it with your local rules in mind.

United States. A growing set of jurisdictions, roughly seventeen states plus Washington DC and several cities, bar private employers from asking about your salary history, though they may still ask about your expectations. The list includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Washington, and others, with Virginia joining on 1 July 2026, plus city-level bans in places such as Cincinnati and Philadelphia. Several of the same states also force employers to post a pay range on the listing itself, which hands you a free anchor: quote their posted band back to them and target its upper half. If someone still asks what you currently earn in a state that bans the question, a calm "I am focusing on the range for this role" is both a good tactic and a lawful decline.

European Union. Under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which member states must write into national law by 7 June 2026, the balance tips further toward the candidate. Employers must disclose the starting salary or its range before the interview, and they are prohibited from asking candidates about their pay history at all. In practice this means that across the EU you should increasingly expect to see the band up front, and you can decline any pay-history question by pointing to the rule.

India and much of Asia. Here the norm still runs the other way. Recruiters routinely ask for your current CTC and your expected CTC, where CTC, or cost to company, bundles base pay, allowances, provident fund, gratuity, and other benefits into one annual figure. The safe answer is still a justified range rather than a single number: state an expected CTC band and tie it to your skills and the market for the role, not merely to a percentage bump on your current CTC. If you anchor only on a hike over your present package, you inherit every way in which that package underpays you.

Wherever you are, translate the same principle into local terms: research the market for the role, answer with a band in the local currency and structure, and keep your own pay history out of it as far as the local norms allow.

When they keep pushing for one number

Some recruiters will press past your range because their process, or their own manager, wants a single figure to slot into a system. You have a few graceful escalations before you either give the top of your band or decide the pressure itself is a red flag.

• Reframe: "The honest answer is a range, because the right number depends on the total package. If you need one figure to proceed, use the top of that band."
• Trade information for information: "I am glad to firm this up. Can you share where this lands against your budget for the level?"
• Anchor to their own posting: "Your listing shows up to 150, so let us work within that."
• Name the package, not just base: "My number assumes base plus bonus and equity. If the mix shifts, the base figure shifts with it."

If none of that lands and the recruiter is visibly irritated that you will not name your current pay, treat it as data about the employer. Compensation pressure this early, especially a demand for your salary history in a place that norm-frowns on it, tends to predict a negotiation later that runs the same way.

What changes after there is an offer

Everything above is pre-offer positioning, where your goal is to stay in the process while conceding as little pricing as possible. Once an actual offer arrives, the game changes: now you have leverage, competing information, and a concrete number to work against, and the tactics shift from deflect to counter. Keep the two phases separate in your head so you do not negotiate against an offer that does not exist yet, and do not treat the screening range as a promise you cannot revisit once you see the full package.

Before the screen, do the homework that makes your range defensible: our guide on researching salary ranges before an interview walks through where the credible numbers actually come from. The screen itself sits inside a larger call, so it pairs naturally with preparing for the technical phone screen. And when the offer lands, move on to negotiating tech compensation for the counter, and use smart questions to ask your interviewer to surface the package details your range depends on.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to answer the salary question at all? Not with a number, at least not immediately. You can deflect once by asking their budgeted range. But refusing outright, twice, reads as difficult, so if they hold firm, give a researched band rather than stonewalling.

What if I give a range and they offer the bottom of it? Assume they will, and price your band accordingly. The bottom of any range you state is effectively your floor in their eyes, so never put a number there that you would resent accepting. That is also why your private walk-away floor should sit below the band, not at its edge.

They asked what I currently earn. Can I refuse? Yes, and depending where you live the question may be unlawful for them to ask. A neutral "I would rather anchor on the range for this role" declines it without friction. In the EU and in many US states, pay-history questions are restricted or banned outright, so you are on solid ground.

Should I give a single number if a form forces one? Enter the top of your researched range. A form field reads as your expectation, not your floor, and entering the high end leaves room to be negotiated down toward a figure you are still happy with.

How wide should my range be? Wide enough to be credible, narrow enough to be believed. A spread of roughly 20 to 30 percent between low and high tends to work. Too tight and it looks like a single number in disguise; too wide and it signals you have not researched the level.

Is it different for contract or freelance rates? The structure is the same, but quote a day rate or hourly range and make clear it excludes the benefits an employee gets, so nobody compares a contractor headline against an employee salary as if they were the same unit.

What if I genuinely have no idea what the role pays? Then buy time rather than guess. Confirm the level, location, and whether the number is base or total package, and offer to follow up. A wrong anchor is far harder to walk back than a short delay.

Where to take this next

• Researching salary ranges before an interview for building the numbers your range stands on.
• Preparing for the technical phone screen for the call where this question usually lands.
• Negotiating tech compensation for the counter once an offer exists.
• Smart questions to ask your interviewer for surfacing the package details behind the headline figure.

Sources

• GovDocs: Pay Transparency and Salary History Laws by State for the US states and cities that bar salary-history questions while still allowing expectation questions.
• Jackson Lewis: How to Prepare Your Company Now for the EU Pay Transparency Obligations for the EU Directive's pre-interview pay disclosure, its ban on pay-history questions, and the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline.
• Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School: How to Negotiate a Higher Salary for anchoring and the "non-offer offer" range technique.
• Indeed India: How To Answer Your Expected CTC for how current CTC and expected CTC are asked and structured in India.