I applaud the spirit of your comment, namely that the idea is to take control. My post is mostly aimed at dealing with people who want numbers as a screening qu

I applaud the spirit of your comment, namely that the idea is to take control. My post is mostly aimed at dealing with people who want numbers as a screening question before you get down to negotiating a specific offer. If you're a top person in great demand, you ought to be able to take control of the negotiation by saying either of the following: a) My compensation for the past five years isn't the issue here, let's talk about what I can do for you, or; b) My compensation for the past five years has ranged from X to Y, but here's why I think Z is the right number for this job in this company.