For many people, the requirement to include salary requirements in with their resume and other application materials is perplexing at best. After all, when all you know about a job is contained in a job posting, you aren’t yet aware of all of the job duties for a position. Sometimes the hours aren’t even clear. If you’re responding to an ad posted by a placement service, you might not even know the identity of a potential employer. Under these circumstances, it seems impossible to determine what the job might be worth, let alone what they might be willing to pay you if you were hired.

Remember that it is neither necessary nor wise to provide your salary requirements unless the job posting requires it. The subject is much easier to address after you have attended an interview and obtained better information about the position, what would be expected of you, and the nature of the company. If the job posting calls for your salary requirements and you are certain that it is a position for which you want to apply, you’ll need to acknowledge the requirement in your application materials.

Intuitively, you know that you should try not to provide a salary requirement that is too high, because this is an easy way for the human resources department to exclude you from consideration. However, did you know that you might also be excluded if you provide a salary requirement that is too low? If your salary requirements are substantially lower that what the potential employer has budgeted, they might count their lucky stars that they’ve found a bargain—or they might decide that if you don’t value your own services, you may not be the quality employee they’re looking for. For this reason, it is inadvisable to include a hard figure in your application materials unless the job posting absolutely requires it.

First, consider the wording of the job posting carefully. Does it ask for your minimum salary? Your salary range? Does it vaguely call for “salary requirements”? Look also for any language suggesting that applications without salary requirements will not be considered. If the wording is vague, you may be able to get away with an equally vague statement such as, “My salary requirements are negotiable, based upon position requirements, hours and available benefits.” This acknowledges that you read the job posting carefully, without committing yourself to a figure that could exclude you from consideration. This statement should be included in your cover letter, in the closing paragraph.

You can also state a very wide range, while also noting that the figure is negotiable, like this: “Based upon my experience and salary history, my anticipated salary would fall between $40,000 - $52,000. This figure is negotiable based upon hours, position requirements and available benefits.” This kind of statement makes it clear that your anticipated salary range should not exclude you from consideration, since you are willing to negotiate a mutually acceptable figure.

If the job posting contains more specific language, or adds some punitive threat such as a statement that they will not consider applications without stated salary requirements, you will be unable to get away with simply noting that your salary requirements are negotiable. Under these circumstances, include a range as demonstrated above. It is also a good idea to do your homework and perform some research to find out what a typical salary for this job is in your area. Once you have determined the average salary for comparable positions in other companies, you will be able to create a range the potential employer will likely find palatable.

Finally, consider that requesting salary requirements before they have even given you much information about a job is a rather unfair practice, and potential employers who include threats such as “applications without salary requirements will be immediately rejected” suggest that the employer is already on the defensive. Job postings that are phrased in this way often come from either condescending managers or companies that are already experiencing problems with their personnel. You may decide that you would rather not work for a company that behaves this way in constructing job postings that will be viewed by the public and that will act as their first contact with potential employees. For very small or start-up companies, this requirement may also indicate that the company has a rather tight budget and they are hoping to find a bargain. This may spell bad news, simply because the company may not still be in business a few months after you are hired.



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