Work & Money

How to Answer What Are Your Salary Expectations (Scripts)

The question can arrive before you know what the job pays. Here is how to turn it around, when to give a range, and the words that hold up when you are a woman asking.

By We Them FeministsUpdated Nov 8, 2026 • 5 min read

A woman carrying a laundry basket, a laptop and a school permission form, with Hand It Back lettered beside her

Fifteen minutes into the first call, the recruiter asks it warmly, like a formality: "And what are your salary expectations?" You have not seen the full job description or the budget. Somehow you are the one expected to go first.

The short answer: do not name a number before you know what the role pays. Ask for their budgeted range, or use the posted one. If they press, give a narrow, researched range with a bottom you would be glad to get. Here is the answer for anyone, then what changes when you are a woman asking.

What to Say When They Ask

How to answer salary expectations? Acknowledge it, turn it around, and only then give a number.

Treat it as an ordinary question, because it is. They need to know whether you are in the same ballpark, and so do you.

Ask for their range. If the posting showed one, say so and ask where this role sits inside it. If not, ask what they have budgeted.

"I'd like to make sure we are in the same range. What have you budgeted for this role?"

If they ask again, give a researched range. Our guides on negotiating salary and asking for a raise both warn that a range gets heard as its lowest number. So keep it narrow, with a bottom you would be glad to get. That floor is your real ask.

"Based on what I'm seeing for similar roles in this market, I'm looking at $85,000 to $92,000, depending on the full package. Does that fit what you have in mind?"

We suggest saying "the full package" early, to keep bonus, leave, flexibility and title in play.

Know Your Number Before the Interview

The deflection only works if you can back it with a number. Give it one evening.

Posted ranges. A GovDocs tracker, updated July 2026, lists 17 states and Washington DC with pay range disclosure laws. Search your title and city and read the bands.
Government data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme covers about 830 occupations, nationally, by state and by metro area, latest May 2025.
People. Ask recruiters what they are placing people at, and ask a man who does your job what he earns. Our raise guide shows how to tell if you are underpaid the same way.

Then write three numbers on a card. Your target: what the evidence says the role pays someone like you. Your ask: a little above it, leaving room to meet. Your floor: the lowest number you would be glad to accept.

What to put for the minimum compensation requirement? Our rule of thumb: never type your floor into a box labelled minimum, because it invites an offer at exactly that number. If the box takes text, write "Negotiable, depending on the full package". If it demands a figure, enter your ask.

What does "salary requirements" mean? In our reading, it means what you need to be paid to take the job. On a form, treat it like desired or expected salary: same answer.

What is a desired salary for $16 an hour? Multiply by the hours in a full time year. Forty hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours, so 16 x 2,080 = $33,280 a year before tax.

The first number on the table is a strong predictor of the final price.

Four sticky notes reading Yes and a hand placing a fifth that reads No

Why This Question Costs Women More

The gap is already in the room. The Census Bureau's Income in the United States: 2025 report puts the female to male earnings ratio for full time, year round workers at 83.9 percent. On a $70,000 role, that is $58,730, a gap of $11,270. A Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 hourly earnings put Black women at 70 percent and Hispanic women at 65 percent of white men's pay. In our view, an expected salary built on your last paycheck can carry that gap with it.

Asking is judged differently. In experiments by Hannah Riley Bowles, Linda Babcock and Lei Lai, evaluators saw candidate profiles identical apart from gender and whether the candidate had asked for more. The Harvard Kennedy School summary reports that women were penalised more than men for negotiating. A pattern, not a verdict on your interviewer. A later study by Bowles and Babcock found that relational accounts, a reason that also shows care for the working relationship, improved women's social and negotiation outcomes. One line the study tested:

The first number anchors. Galinsky and Mussweiler found that whichever side made the first offer got the better outcome. The first number on the table is a strong predictor of the final price. The effect vanished when the other side focused on its own target. So if you must go first, make it your ask, not your floor. Galinsky and Mussweiler found that focusing on your own target removed the advantage of the other side's first offer, so keep yours in front of you.

A low start compounds. Accept $5,000 less than you could have, with 3 percent raises for 30 years, and the shortfall adds up to about $238,000 in pay alone. The working: 5,000 x (1.03 to the power of 30, minus 1) / 0.03 = 5,000 x 47.58 = 237,877. The 3 percent is an assumption.

"What are you earning now?" is a different question. HR Dive's salary history ban tracker, updated April 2026, counts 22 statewide bans on asking it, including California, Colorado and New York, and 24 local ones. Where no ban applies, we suggest you decline to answer with a number and redirect to the role. General information, not legal advice.

What is the #1 rule of salary negotiation? Before the offer: never name a number before you know what the role pays. After it, the rule from our guide to how to negotiate salary once the offer is in takes over: never accept on the spot.

Hand-lettered text on a pink brush stroke reading Say it once, kindly

Scripts for Every Version of the Question

Each script leads with the role and the evidence, and none apologises.

On the recruiter screen:

"I'd like to understand the scope before I talk numbers. Can you share the range you have budgeted?"

When they push after you deflect:

"From posted ranges and BLS data for this role, I'm looking at $85,000 to $92,000, depending on the full package. If your range is different, I'd still like to hear it."

When they ask what you earn now:

"I'd rather focus on what this role is worth. Based on the market, I'm looking at $85,000 to $92,000. Is that in line with your budget?"

When their range is lower than yours:

"Thanks for sharing. That's below what I'm seeing for this level of responsibility. Is there flexibility at the top of the range, or in bonus, title or start date?"

If a voice says you are not worth the top of your range, that voice has a name, and it is not the market talking.

This week: spend one evening on the research, write your target, ask and floor on a card, then say your floor out loud once to someone you trust, so the first time you hear your own number is not in the interview.