Why You Should Avoid Sharing Your Salary Expectations with Recruiters
All job seekers deserve to receive excellent compensation that reflects their unique experience, skill set, value, and growth potential. But not many do.
Why? Because they disclose their salary expectations to recruiters during the interview process, which can prevent them from receiving a fair offer.
Candidates who avoid disclosing their salary expectations often end up with improved compensation. The Salary Negotiator team knows this because we’ve negotiated hundreds of offers and increased compensation for clients at every stage of their career in nearly every industry—including tech behemoths Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta (formerly Facebook).
This post shares why you should avoid sharing your salary expectations and current compensation with recruiters—and highlights the only scenario in which you should share compensation information upfront.
Don’t want to go through the salary negotiation process alone? We have additional resources to help you negotiate job offers.
Get offer-specific advice from a Salary Negotiation Coach to guarantee success in your salary negotiation.
Try our Salary Negotiation Courses or get our Salary Negotiation Templates to navigate your negotiation and receive downloadable phone scripts and email templates to prepare you for all aspects of the job offer negotiation.
Why do recruiters want to know my salary expectations?
First, they want to ensure they can afford to hire you. Recruiters won’t waste their time interviewing you if they cannot reach your requirements.
Second, they can use it to see if your priorities are aligned with theirs (i.e., are you interested in the role itself or are you just interested in a higher salary?).
Lastly, they may be looking for a way to confirm they are hiring the correct skillset because salary expectations and/or your current compensation can be closely tied to seniority level and job title.
Why should I avoid sharing my salary expectations with recruiters?
To put it simply, sharing your salary expectations will usually prevent you from receiving a fair offer. If you share a lower compensation than what the company could offer, they are more likely to offer you that low compensation. If you throw out a number higher than what they could offer, they could become disinterested and decide to pursue a different candidate.
Further, it doesn’t make sense to discuss compensation before you learn more about the role, the company’s benefits and culture, typical compensation breakdown, and whether those aspects feel like a good fit for you. After all, you’re also interviewing the company.
The company may ask you to share your compensation expectations so they can try to find the best deal for both you and the company. But it’s important to remember that they are working for the company, not you. There are a few cases where it may make sense to share your salary expectations, but we’ll share more about that later.
At the end of the day, the hiring company will know better than you do what value your skillset and experience bring to their company, and what they can pay for the role you’re interviewing for.
Why should I avoid sharing my current compensation with recruiters?
Not all roles are created equal, and companies vary widely in compensation structures and practices. Not only are there separate pay ranges for roles in different industries, but you may be transitioning into a higher-level role or relocating to a new city with a different cost of living, which can affect your new compensation.
While some employers can legally ask you about your salary expectations for a new position, some states and cities actually restrict employers by law from asking you about your current compensation.
Regardless, your compensation should be based on what the market pays for that role at that new company, and not just what you’ve been paid in the past.
When does it make sense to share your salary expectations?
The only time we recommend sharing your salary expectations with recruiters is if the salary range is well below your current or expected compensation.
If that’s the case, it’s best to be candid by letting recruiters know their proposed range is far off from your current expectations and provide them a general range of what you were expecting.
This is the only time we recommend doing this because it’ll help save both you and the recruiters time and energy, especially if you know you won’t accept a role with a lower salary.
Now that you know why you should avoid sharing your current compensation and future salary expectations with recruiters, we’ll show you how to do that without compromising your job prospects.
Our sample salary expectations script teaches you how to respectfully communicate your interest in the role and your value to the company, without disclosing data that could prevent you from receiving a fair offer.
Read: What to Say When Job Applications or Recruiters Ask About Your Salary Expectations
Read: How to Fill Out Salary Expectations Answer on Application Forms
If you want to guarantee success in your salary negotiation, get Salary Negotiation Coaching from us. Our experience helping career professionals negotiate job offers will ensure you negotiate competitive compensation.
We also have our How to Negotiate Your Job Offer and How to Negotiate Your Current Salary courses, and Salary Negotiation Templates for those who want to learn at their own pace and gain the confidence and tools to negotiate their compensation. With downloadable email templates and job offer negotiation resources you will be prepared for all aspects of the salary negotiation.