Couple of things that might be helpful: 1. Ask them what the compensation is for the role earlier in the interview process. If you are feeling bold/pushy yours

Couple of things that might be helpful: 1. Ask them what the compensation is for the role earlier in the interview process. If you are feeling bold/pushy yourself you can start by asking them to explain their compensation model for finding a candidate and discuss whether or not they are working for candidates or the company. (This gets recruiters on edge making them less likely to look for firm numbers from you) 2. Start by asking about what they offer in non-salary compensation, and be as detailed as possible. There are big differences in equity, health care coverage, 401K match, etc... work your way up to salary. 3. Use your current compensation (TC) to stress that you want a reasonable percentage increase... TC should include estimates for how much your health insurance costs, bonus, perks at work, severance (conferences, food/ beverage, company functions, etc). 4. Use the stack overflow developer survey to figure out roughly what your comp should be. Focus on getting to the high end of the salary range. If you good they should have to "think about it" Also going to throw this out there... dumb companies worry about how much someone will cost, smart companies worry about the value that someone will bring. So if you keep on running into this you should probably look at different companies.