“What are your salary expectations?” — how employers actually ask it

Distinct from salary history, which some jurisdictions restrict. Most forms take a free-text answer rather than a range to pick from. We read the application forms of 65 employers that ask it — 491 instances in all — from their own public job-board APIs. This is what the question looks like in practice.

What it is checking

Asks what you expect to be paid. Some jurisdictions restrict asking for salary HISTORY while still permitting expectations — the two are different questions.

The shape of the answer

Only 18% of these forms give you a fixed list — most take free text, so the wording is yours to choose. 88% are marked required.

67 distinct options appear across the corpus. The long tail is mostly one employer listing every permit type it recognises.

127 ways of asking the same thing

The wording matters more than it looks: two forms can ask about the same fact and accept different answers. These are the most common, with the number of employers using each — the form's own words, not a paraphrase.

Employers whose exact wording we have

Each of these pages lists every question on that employer's form, including this one.

8am · Adyen · Airtable · Alphasense · Amyris · Assemblyai · Avant Arte · Bevi · Boku · Boulder Care · Boulevard · Box · Carbonchain · Carvana · Centrum Health · Charles · Circleci · Cloudflare · Cockroach · Degreed · Dollar Shave Club · Doximity · Enova International · Eve · Flock Homes · Genius · Ghx · Ginkgo Bioworks · Gocardless · Isar Aerospace Se · Kaizo · Kbra · Kiwico · Komodo Health · Lithic · Litify · Magic Leap · Makersite · Mallory Alexander · Marqeta · Mighty Networks · Myfitnesspal · N26 · Natera · Neuehealth · Newsela · Nuro · Oshi Health · Podium · Premier Medical · Prodigal · Prolific · Quip · Razorpay Software Private · Rebelmouse · Roofstock · Shopmy · Sidecar Health · Signifyd · Sourcegraph · Upslide · Urban Sports Club · Whisper Aero · Wholesail · Wrike

What this page does not tell you

It does not tell you what to answer. What is true for you is not visible from a job board, and a confident steer on a question about your right to work — or on a contract you have signed — would be worth less than nothing. What is here is what the form will put in front of you, so that nothing on it is a surprise.

Nor does it say whether any employer filters on the answer. Whether a form's answers are used that way is not published by any of these job boards, and the honest position is that we cannot see it.