What do you write when an application form requires a desired salary?

Give a researched range rather than a single number, and keep the bottom of that range at a figure you would genuinely accept, because the bottom is what you will be offered. Base it on real evidence: postings for the same role in the same city, especially where pay ranges are published, and the range in the posting itself if it has one. If the field only accepts a number, enter the bottom of your target range or a round figure inside it, and add 'negotiable, depending on total compensation' in any free-text box nearby. Entering 0 or 999999 to game a required field is a common trick that mainly produces odd-looking applications.

Can employers ask for your salary history?

In a number of US states and cities, laws restrict employers from asking applicants about salary history, and some require employers to disclose a pay range instead - but coverage varies by jurisdiction and by employer size, so check the rules where you are applying. Practically, you do not have to volunteer it anywhere, and it never belongs on a resume. If you are asked directly and the question is lawful where you are, you can redirect to what you are targeting for this role rather than reciting what a previous employer paid, which is information about them rather than about your value here.

Should You Put Salary Expectations on a Resume?

Q: Should you put salary expectations on a resume?

No. A resume exists to make someone want to talk to you, and a number can only work against that at this stage: too high and you are filtered out before anyone reads your experience, too low and you have anchored your own offer below what the role pays. Nobody has ever been hired because their resume named a figure. The same goes for salary history and for the filler line 'salary negotiable', which wastes space the way 'references available upon request' does. Leave the subject off the page entirely unless an employer has explicitly required it.

A practical guide from the team behind PlainResume, the free resume builder.

The short answer: No. A number on your resume can only do two things, both bad: price you out before anyone reads your experience, or anchor your offer below what the job was budgeted to pay. Nobody has ever been hired because their resume named a figure. Leave salary expectations, salary history, and the filler line "salary negotiable" off the page — and when a posting or an application form genuinely requires a number, give a researched range whose bottom you'd actually accept.

The instinct behind adding it is reasonable: you don't want to waste three interviews discovering the job pays twenty thousand less than you need. That's a real problem — it's just not solved on the resume, where the number arrives before any reason to want you.

Why the number loses on the page

A resume is read by someone deciding whether to spend twenty minutes on a call. Introduce a figure into that decision and one of two things happens. Name a number above their band and you're filtered out silently — no conversation, no chance to show you're worth the top of the range. Name one below and you've set the ceiling for an offer they'd have made higher, because no employer negotiates up from a candidate's own stated expectation.

The asymmetry is the whole argument: the upside of including it is avoiding a conversation you might have wanted, and the downside is invisible and unrecoverable. Same reason "salary negotiable" and "compensation: DOE" are dead weight — they say nothing and consume a line in the most valuable space you have, exactly like "references available upon request".

✗ Desired salary: $72,000 · Current salary: $64,500 · Salary negotiable

✓ (nothing — the space goes to a summary line, a credential, or one more piece of evidence)

When the posting explicitly asks

Some postings do require salary requirements, and ignoring an explicit instruction is its own risk — a few employers screen out applications that skip it. Answer in the cover letter, in one sentence at the end, not on the resume:

✓ "Based on the scope described and comparable roles in the Denver market, I'm targeting the $78,000–$88,000 range, and I'm flexible depending on the full package."

Three things are doing work there. It's a range, so you haven't drawn a line you can't move. It's justified by the market rather than by your needs, which keeps it a business conversation. And "depending on the full package" is true — bonus, equity, retirement match, healthcare cost, and PTO can be worth more than several thousand in base.

Required fields on application forms

Online forms are less forgiving; some won't submit without a number. A few rules that hold up:

Put your real bottom at the bottom. Whatever the lower end of your range is, assume that's the offer. Set it at a number you'd genuinely accept, not a number you'd resent.
Research it first. Look at postings for the same title in the same city — many jurisdictions now require published pay ranges, so real comparables are easier to find than they used to be — and read the range in the posting itself if there is one.
Use the free-text box if there is one. "Negotiable depending on total compensation" alongside the figure keeps the door open.
Don't game it. Entering 0, 1, or 999999 is a widely repeated trick that mostly produces a strange-looking application; if you truly can't answer, enter a round number inside your range.

Salary history is a separate question

Your current or previous salary is not the employer's business and definitely not resume material. A number of US states and cities restrict employers from asking about salary history, and several require employers to disclose a pay range on request or in the posting — coverage varies by jurisdiction and employer size, so check the rules where you're applying. Either way, you never have to volunteer it. If you're asked directly and the question is lawful where you are, redirect to the present: what you're targeting for this role, based on its scope. What a previous employer paid is a fact about them, not about the value you'd bring here.

Where the conversation actually belongs

The right moment is the recruiter screen — usually the first call, where logistics get confirmed anyway. It's entirely fair to ask early: "Can you share the range budgeted for this role?" That question costs you nothing, often gets a straight answer, and puts the number on the table before either side invests more time. If they ask you first, a range plus "what's the band for the role?" is a normal, professional exchange, not a confrontation.

One thing to keep in mind: the strength of your position at that moment comes from everything that got you there — the evidence on the page, the fit you demonstrated, the interviews you handled. Spend the resume's space on that, and the salary conversation takes care of itself later, with leverage you wouldn't have had if you'd opened with a figure.

Use that line for evidence instead. PlainResume's live page check shows exactly what fits, so the space goes to what gets you the call. Free, no sign-up, no paywall on the PDF — everything stays in your browser.