Blog · Career Growth
What to Say When They Ask About Your Expected Salary
Asked what you expect to earn and no idea what to say? Here is how to answer without underselling yourself or losing the offer.
Prateek Sahni
Published: 16 July 2026 · 11 min read
There is a particular silence when the question arrives.
You are in an interview, or halfway through an application form, and there it is: what are your salary expectations? Suddenly you are doing arithmetic you have no way of checking. Too high and you imagine the conversation ending before it starts. Too low and you will spend two years quietly resenting it. So you guess, or you write "negotiable" and hope the problem goes away.
It does not go away. It just gets decided by someone else.
For professionals in India, Philippines and Bangladesh applying to companies in the UAE, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Netherlands, the question is harder still, but it is hard in two different ways.
If you have never held an international role, you are being asked to price yourself in a market you have never worked in. If you already have one and you are applying for something better, you have the opposite problem: you have a number, and it is the number you agreed to two years ago. That figure feels like data. It is usually just history. This guide covers both situations - what to say, what not to say and why this moment matters more than almost any other in the hiring process.
Why the Salary Expectations Question Feels Harder Than It Should
Most candidates think this question is about money. It is not, or at least not only. It is about information.
Whoever names a number first gives away what they know. The employer already knows their budget, what the last person in the seat earned and what they paid the three candidates before you. You know none of that. When you are asked to go first, you are being asked to bid in an auction where you cannot see the other bids.
That asymmetry gets wider across borders. A professional in Manila or Chennai or Dhaka trying to price a role for a business in London or Dubai is working from guesswork, forum posts and whatever a friend-of-a-friend said they earned two years ago. Most candidates genuinely do not know what the role pays. That is not a personal failing, the information simply is not published in most places.
So the instinct is to protect yourself by aiming low. A number low enough that nobody can call it unreasonable. The problem is that a low number does not read as reasonable to an international client. It reads as a valuation - yours, of yourself and once it is said, it becomes the ceiling for everything that follows. The first figure anchors the whole negotiation, and every conversation afterwards moves in small steps away from it.
What the Data Actually Says About Asking
The most useful evidence comes from a Pew Research Center survey of 5,188 employed U.S. adults, published in April 2023, on how they handled pay at their last hire. It is still the most recent hard data available.
Two findings matter. Most workers said they did not ask for higher pay than what was initially offered the last time they were hired, men were slightly more likely than women to have asked, 32% versus 28%. And among the minority who did ask: 28% were given the pay they asked for, 38% were given more than originally offered but less than they had asked for and 35% received only what was first offered.
Read that again. Roughly two-thirds of those who asked came away with more than the opening number. The other third got what they would have received anyway. The downside of asking, in the data, was mostly that nothing changed.
Pew also found that younger workers were the most likely to say they didn't ask because they weren't comfortable asking, 46% of those aged 18 to 29, compared with 19% of those 65 and older. Discomfort, not strategy, is what stops most people.
Two honest caveats: the survey is from 2023, and it covers American workers, so it does not translate cleanly to a Filipino or Indian professional negotiating with a client in Dubai or Amsterdam. No equivalent study exists for that situation. You will also find a widely-quoted figure claiming negotiators earn 18.8% more, we could not trace it to any primary source, so we will not repeat it. What Pew supports is narrower and still worth knowing: asking usually helps and rarely costs you the offer.
How to Answer Salary Expectations Without Guessing
The method below works whether the question arrives in an application field, an email, or a live interview.
Do your research before you are asked, not during. By the time the question lands, you should already have a range in your head. Look at what similar roles advertise in the client's country, not yours. A role supporting a business in Sydney is priced against what that business would otherwise pay, adjusted for hiring internationally, not against what the same title earns locally. Our guide on getting hired by a Dubai company remotely breaks down what different markets pay, which is the fastest way to build that range. |
Give a range, never a single number. A single figure is a position you have to defend or retreat from. A range is a conversation. Make the bottom a number you would genuinely accept, because that is the number you will be offered. Keep the spread sensible, roughly 15 to 20 percent. A range that spans double is not a range, it is an admission that you have no idea. |
Turn the question around, politely. You are allowed to ask what the role is budgeted at. Framed well it sounds like someone who wants the fit to be right, not someone being evasive and if they answer, you have the information you were missing for free. |
Anchor on the work, not on your history. Volunteering what you currently earn is the most expensive habit candidates have, and it costs both groups. A local salary is priced against a market the client is not hiring in. A rate from an existing international client reflects the scope you had when you agreed to it, not the scope you have now. Either way, what matters is this role: how many people you support, what you own end to end, which tools you run. A candidate who has grown for two years at the same rate is not worth that rate. They are worth what they can now do. |
Do not apologise. No "I hope that's not too much." No "but I'm flexible, obviously." Soften the number and you have negotiated against yourself before the other person has spoken. State it, then stop talking. |
Salary Expectation Sample Answers for Three Common Situations
When you have researched the market and know your range: "Based on what comparable remote roles are paying in your market and the scope you've described, I'm looking at somewhere between [X] and [Y] per month. I'd want to understand the full picture- hours, overlap, how the role grows, before I settle on a number, but that's the range I'm working with." |
When you genuinely do not know the market yet: "I want to give you a useful answer rather than a guess. Could you share what the role is budgeted at? I'd rather work from your range and tell you honestly whether it works for me than throw out a figure that turns out to be irrelevant to both of us." |
When they insist you go first: "That's fair. For a role at this scope, I'd be looking at [X] to [Y] per month. If the responsibilities are broader than what we've discussed, I'd want to revisit that, but that's my honest starting range." |
When you already work with an international client and are moving up: "I'm currently at [X], but that was set for a narrower role than this one. Based on the scope you've described [one or two specifics], I'm looking at [Y] to [Z]. Happy to walk you through how I got there." |
Notice what none of these do. They do not treat your current pay as your value. They do not apologize. They do not say "negotiable", a word that sounds accommodating and reads as I have not thought about this. And they do not oversell. Clients hiring internationally are reading every answer for honesty, the same way they read the rest of the questions they ask in a client interview. A candidate who says "I don't know yet, here's how I'd find out" scores better than one who bluffs a number and cannot defend it.
What Virtual Assistant Salary Actually Depends On
If you have searched virtual assistant salary and come away confused, it is because most results average everyone together, beginners doing data entry and specialists running operations for a founder, into a figure that describes nobody. What actually moves the number is narrower:
Scope, not job title. Two people can both be called a virtual assistant. One clears an inbox. The other owns a client's calendar across four time zones, runs their CRM and makes judgement calls unprompted. The second is paid more because replacing them is hard. |
Depth in the tools the client actually runs on. Surface familiarity with fifteen platforms is worth less than genuine command of the three that matter. We covered this in the skills that separate candidates who get chosen. |
Which market the client sits in. A role supporting a business in the USA or Australia is priced differently from one in Singapore or the Netherlands. This is the biggest variable and the one candidates most often ignore when they benchmark against what a friend in the Philippines or India earns. |
Whether you can evidence outcomes. "I manage the calendar" is a task. "I cut rescheduled meetings by half by introducing a buffer system" is a number and numbers are what make a range defensible. |
The practical implication: before you name a figure, be able to say in one sentence why the top of your range is justified. If you cannot, the range is a wish, not a position.
How Innovex AI Handles This for You
Here is the part that changes the maths.
If you are placed through Innovex AI, you will not face this question cold in a client interview. Salary expectations are aligned before you ever reach that conversation. By the time you meet the client, the number is settled, which is why candidates going through our process can spend their interview demonstrating fit instead of quietly panicking about a figure.
That happens because of the vetting stage, not in spite of it. When we build your profile, we position your background against what the role is actually worth in the client's market, UAE, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore or Netherlands, rather than against what the equivalent title pays in India, Philippines or Bangladesh or against whatever you happened to agree to in your last role. You are not left to guess and you are not quietly held to your own history.
And to be explicit, because it matters in this industry: Innovex AI charges candidates no fees at any stage. Not to apply, not to be vetted, not to be placed. Our clients pay us. You never do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I say when they ask my expected salary?
Give a range, not a single number. Base it on what the role pays in the client's market rather than your own and make the bottom of your range a figure you would genuinely accept, that is usually what you will be offered. If you have not researched it, ask what the role is budgeted at first. Avoid three things: naming your current pay, writing "negotiable" and apologizing for your number.
Should I tell them what I am earning now?
Do not volunteer it, whatever you name becomes your ceiling. But if you are asked directly, do not stonewall either. Advice to never disclose comes from US states where employers are barred from asking; across India, Philippines and Bangladesh the question is routine and refusing reads as evasive rather than shrewd. So answer, but never let the number stand alone. "I'm at [X] currently, though that was set for a narrower scope than this role. Based on what you've described, I'm looking at [Y] to [Z]." Same honesty, different ceiling.
Should I ask for what the role pays in their country or what is normal in mine?
Theirs, adjusted. The role is priced against what that business would otherwise pay, allowing for international hiring, so a client in the USA or Australia is a different number from one in Singapore or the Netherlands. Benchmarking against what a friend in Philippines or India earns usually leaves money on the table.
Will asking for more money cost me the offer?
Rarely. In Pew Research Center's 2023 survey of U.S. workers, about two-thirds of those who asked received more than the initial offer and the rest were mostly held to the original number. The risk of asking is that nothing changes. The risk of not asking is that the first number becomes your ceiling.
