you say all this like I suggested anything different. Salary negotiation is important, and in my experience the worst thing you can do is either mentally commit

you say all this like I suggested anything different. Salary negotiation is important, and in my experience the worst thing you can do is either mentally commit to taking the job before you negotiate a salary, or sow the seeds of mutual distrust early on. If you try to pull the same bullshit on the recruiter that they're pulling on you then you're playing their game on their terms. What I've suggested, contrary to your (unnecessarily abrasive) reply, is not to give up on negotiations but to push past the impersonal arguing over numbers and get to the actual negotiation at hand by laying not only your own cards, but the other person's cards, on the table. You implicitly say up front "if you try to pull the same old $salary * 1.1 game with me I'll turn down your offer" while also laying out what your expectation is. You name a number, and say "that number is not good enough, make it better" and thus leave the ball in their court. This is not you saying "well I want a better salary than I have now, I make £20,000 and I will accept £27,000" - you're saying "well I want a better salary than I have now, I know I'm underpaid, I make £20,000 right now - it's on you to guess what I place my value at, but you know it's not a small jump". All this without making you look like a distrustful asshole like many of the previous suggestions would do. Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous comment - you can be ambiguous about the amount you make too if you want, e.g. "I make below market rate" or "I make about 2/3 of what my friend makes for the same job". But it's very transparent.