Employers ask early for a simple reason: every role has a budget, and they would rather find a big mismatch now than after three interviews. Being asked is normal. The aim is to give an answer that keeps you in the running without underselling you.
First, find the real range
- Read the posting. More and more postings state a pay range. Several US states, including California, Colorado, New York and Washington, require one, and EU pay-transparency rules give applicants the right to be told the starting pay, or its range, before the interview, as each country brings them into law.
- Look at what similar roles pay in the same country and city, or for remote roles, in the country the employer usually hires from. Salary surveys, job boards that show ranges, and people already doing the job all help.
- Start from your own pay. Moving job is usually a moment to go up, not sideways.
Then choose your number
Your number is the figure you would be genuinely happy to accept for this job. If the posting gives a range and you meet what it asks for, aim for the upper half of it. If there is no range, use what similar roles pay, adjusted for your experience. Write it down before you open the form, so the box does not talk you down.
A range or one figure?
If the box takes text, a range is fine, but make the bottom of it a number you would be happy with, because that is the end an employer remembers. A range of £45,000 to £50,000 is a request for £45,000.
If the box takes only one number, give the figure you are asking for, which is the top of your range, not the bottom.
Currency, period, and before or after tax
- Pay period. Check whether the form wants a yearly, monthly or hourly figure. A monthly salary typed into a yearly box makes you look twelve times cheaper.
- Currency. If the form does not say, assume the currency of the posting. For a remote job abroad, name the currency in a text box: “USD 3,000 a month”.
- Gross, not net. Give pay before tax unless the form asks otherwise. That is how employers budget.
- Base, not total. Give base salary unless the question asks about total compensation, bonus or equity.
Boxes that only take numbers
Some forms only accept digits, and they handle everything else badly. Type plain digits, with no currency symbol, no commas and no words: 50000, not “£50,000 a year”. Never type a range into a numbers-only box. Some forms strip out the dash and run the figures together, and a range of 2,000 to 2,500 has been seen turning into 20,002,500.
“Negotiable”, zero, and other dodges
Writing “negotiable” on its own, or entering 0 or 1 to get past a required box, tends to backfire. A filter may read the number literally, and a recruiter reads it as not having done the homework. Give a real figure. If there is room for text, you can add “depending on the full package”.
Expected salary is not current salary
Some forms ask what you earn now, which is a different question. Many US states and cities stop employers asking about your pay history, and the EU rules do the same. Where it is allowed, you can answer honestly or leave it if the field is optional. Don’t put your expected salary in a current-salary box: the two mean different things, and a recruiter will read it as fact.
How Draftloop handles salary boxes
You save your salary expectation once, in your own words, for example “USD 60,000 to 70,000 a year”. When a form asks for your expected salary in a text box, Draftloop enters it exactly as you wrote it. It never types a range into a box that only takes a number: where it fills one, it uses the top of your range as plain digits, so the site cannot misread it and the bottom of your range is never offered on your behalf. Some number-only boxes it leaves for you to fill in yourself.