How to Answer "What Are Your Salary Expectations?" (Scripts + Strategy)

Introduction

"What are your salary expectations?" is the only interview question where the answer costs money. Say a number €5,000 too low and you may have donated €5,000 a year—cheerfully, in your own voice, on record. Say something evasive at the wrong moment and you sound like you're playing games.

The good news: this question rewards preparation more than nerve. This guide covers the research that produces your number, when to deflect versus answer, exact scripts for both, and enough negotiation basics to handle what comes after.

Table of Contents

Why Interviewers Ask This Question

Three reasons, in descending order of innocence:

  • Budget screening. Most roles have an approved range. If you're far outside it, the recruiter wants to know before anyone invests four more interviews. This is legitimate and works in your favor too.
  • Calibration. Your expectation tells them how you rate yourself and whether you know the market. A wildly low number can, unfairly, read as low confidence or low competence; a wildly high one as unrealistic.
  • Anchoring. Less innocently: whoever names a number first sets the gravitational center of the negotiation. Some employers ask early precisely to get your (possibly uninformed, possibly modest) number on the table before you've learned what the role is worth to them.

Understanding the third reason changes how you play the first two. You want to be cooperative on budget-fit—and deliberate about when and how your number enters the room.

Do the Research First

Never walk into any interview—even a "quick chat"—without a researched range. The research takes an evening:

  1. Triangulate the market rate. Check at least three sources: salary aggregators (Glassdoor, Payscale, LinkedIn Salary), posted ranges in comparable job ads (increasingly common under pay-transparency laws), and industry or union salary surveys if your field has them. For the role, in your region, at your experience level—a job title alone can span €20k depending on city and sector.
  2. Adjust for the specific employer. Big corporates and scale-ups usually pay above small local firms; nonprofits below. If the company posts ranges for other roles, you can infer their bands.
  3. Price the whole package. Bonus, pension contribution, extra vacation days, travel allowance, training budget, remote flexibility. Two offers €3k apart can invert once you count a 13th month or a good pension. Know which components matter to you before someone offers to trade them.
  4. Set your three numbers. Write down: your walk-away (below this you decline), your target (realistic and satisfying), and your ask (target plus a modest margin). Your spoken range runs from target to ask. The walk-away stays in your pocket—it's for your decisions, not their ears.

That last point deserves italics: the bottom of the range you say out loud should be a number you'd be happy with, because it's the number they're most likely to hear.

Deflect or Answer? The Real Tradeoffs

The internet's classic advice—"never name a number first!"—is half right and badly aged. Here's the honest tradeoff table:

Deflecting (turning the question back) preserves information advantage and avoids anchoring low. It works best early in the process, asked once, delivered warmly. Its costs: some recruiters can't proceed without a number (budget screening is their actual job), and repeated deflection reads as evasive or high-maintenance.

Answering with a researched range costs you a little information advantage but buys credibility, momentum, and—if your research is good—a favorable anchor. An informed number said confidently is not a weakness; it's a demonstration that you know your market. The real danger was never speaking first; it was speaking first without research.

A practical rule:

  • Screening call, asked once: deflect politely or ask their range first. Many will simply tell you—pay transparency has made this normal.
  • They won't share, or they ask again: give your range. Fighting past this point costs more than it protects.
  • Late-stage interview or offer conversation: always be willing to name your range. By now you have maximum leverage; use it, don't hide it.

How to Give a Range That Works

  • Width: 10–15%. "€42,000 to €47,000" is a negotiating position. "€35,000 to €55,000" is a shrug.
  • Bottom = your target, not your minimum. Assume the bottom is what they'll hear.
  • Attach one sentence of basis. "Based on what I'm seeing for similar roles in this region" turns a wish into a market fact, and makes lowballing you feel like arguing with the market rather than with you.
  • State total-package awareness. "…for base, and I look at the whole package" keeps trades open without unravelling your number.
  • Say it and stop talking. The classic self-sabotage is the nervous postscript: "€45,000... but I'm flexible... I mean it depends..." Silence after a number is negotiating. Babbling after a number is discounting.

Example Scripts

1. The polite deflection (early screening call)

"At this stage I'm mostly focused on whether the role is the right fit—money won't be the sticking point if it is. Could you share the range budgeted for the position? That way I can tell you right away whether we're in the same neighborhood."

2. The researched range (asked directly, or asked twice)

"Sure. Based on my research for similar roles in this region and my five years of experience, I'm looking at €44,000 to €48,000 base, and I look at the full package—pension, bonus, vacation days—when comparing offers. How does that sit with your range?"

Note the ending: a question. It returns the ball and stops you filling the silence.

3. First job — when you have no salary history

"As a graduate I've based my expectations on published market data rather than experience, and starting salaries for this role seem to sit between €2,600 and €2,900 a month. I'm at the flexible end of that—what matters most to me right now is learning speed—but I'd want to be within market range. What does the scale look like here?"

Honest about the situation, still anchored in research, still not "whatever you think is fair."

4. Retail / hourly — where scales often exist

"I'm currently on €14.20 an hour with weekend supplements, and I wouldn't want to move backwards—I know a lot of retail here runs on fixed scales, so mainly I'd want to know which scale and step this role comes in at, and what the path up looks like. If the base is close and the progression is real, we'll work it out."

In scale-based sectors the negotiation is usually about step placement, not the number—so ask about the scale.

5. Management / senior — where the package is the point

"For base I'm looking at €85,000 to €92,000, which reflects what the market pays for running a team of this size with P&L responsibility. That said, at this level I weigh the total structure heavily—bonus mechanics, pension, and scope for how the role grows. If the structure is right, I'm flexible on how the components add up. What have you budgeted?"

6. When they lowball on the spot

"Thanks for being open about the range. That's below where I can land, honestly—my research and current situation put me at €44,000 minimum. Is there flexibility there, or room elsewhere in the package—an extra week of vacation, a guaranteed review at six months? If not, I'd rather we both know now."

Calm, specific, no apology, and an exit ramp for both sides.

Negotiation Basics for What Comes Next

The expectations question is round one; the offer is round two. Five basics:

  1. Never accept on the call. "Thank you—I'm excited about this. Can I take a day or two to look at the full package?" is always acceptable and never costs the offer.
  2. Negotiate once, completely. Gather every ask—salary, vacation days, start date, training budget—into one counter, rather than winning the salary and then reopening on vacation. Serial re-negotiation burns goodwill fast.
  3. Anchor counters in reasons. "Based on the market data and the scope we discussed, I was expecting €47,000" outperforms "can you do better?" every time.
  4. Trade, don't just push. If base is capped, an extra vacation week, a signing bonus, or a guaranteed six-month review are often easier yeses—and a review clause converts strong performance into money within a year.
  5. Know your walk-away and honor it. A negotiation without a walk-away number isn't a negotiation; it's a request for mercy.

Adapt It to Your Situation

Your evening of preparation, condensed:

  • Triangulate three sources into a market range for your role, region, and level.
  • Write your three numbers: walk-away, target, ask.
  • Pick your default script—deflect-once-then-range for early calls, straight range for later rounds—and say it out loud twice, including the stop-talking part.
  • List the two non-salary components you'd happily trade for, and the one you won't.

Worth remembering: your leverage in this conversation was mostly earned before it started. A candidate who has aced the interviews and the assessments gets stretched budgets; a marginal candidate gets the bottom of the band. Strong preparation—including practising any aptitude tests in the process on Assessment-Training.com—is, indirectly, salary negotiation. And your one-sentence value case ("similar roles pay X, and here's what I bring") should draw straight from your greatest-strength answer.

FAQ

Should I give a number or deflect?

Early screening, asked once: deflect politely or ask their range. Pressed again, or later in the process: give a researched range. Refusing twice costs goodwill. Never name an unresearched number.

How wide should my range be?

10–15% top to bottom, with the bottom being a number you'd genuinely be happy with—that's the number they'll hear.

Do I have to reveal my current salary?

In many jurisdictions employers can't even ask. Either way, redirect: your expectation is based on the market rate for the new role, not your old paycheck.

What if their offer is below my range?

Ask what flexibility exists on base or elsewhere—vacation, bonus, training budget, an early review. Small gap: negotiate. Structural gap: better discovered now.

Can naming a number first hurt me?

Only an unresearched number. An informed first number anchors the negotiation in your favor. Research beats bravado.

Conclusion

The salary question is a math test disguised as a conversation, and you're allowed to bring notes. Research your range, decide in advance when you'll deflect and when you'll answer, deliver the number with a reason and a full stop, and treat the offer as the start of one calm, complete negotiation. For everything else on the interview itself, our guides to 50 common interview questions and tell me about yourself have you covered. Good luck—and don't undersell yourself.

About the Author

Ingmar van Maurik is a career and assessment preparation expert who helps candidates improve their interview and test performance.

References

  • Assessment-Training.com
  • Glassdoor
  • Payscale