What number will make you jump ship doesn't necessarily match your market salary. If you're in a big-co and want to switch to a startup, you'll take a salary hi

What number will make you jump ship doesn't necessarily match your market salary. If you're in a big-co and want to switch to a startup, you'll take a salary hit. If you just want out of your job because it's dead-end or your boss is a psychopath, any number may do. Let's assume you want a market salary -- you can still know your market and know your worth but let them name a number first. The assumption is generally if an employer names a number first it's going to be on the low end of their scale. Therefore, there is room up to negotiate to get to your actual value. Suppose hypothetically you know your worth to be $120K. You don't say anything, and the employer comes out with $100K. You can negotiate for that other $20K since you know what your worth is. If money isn't a factor ("extremely flexible about pay") or if they really can't pay you that much, you can negotiate on secondary benefits like vacation time, reimbursements, and travel/training budgets. Would you take $110K and $15K of benefits instead of a $120K salary and $2K of benefits? Some people might. Suppose you did say $120K, they can still try to price you down by price anchoring you to their initial offer of $100K. They'll go into the benefits, the intangibles, and the value of their benefits relative to the compensation -- how the "catered daily lunch" is actually like $X of salary for example. Maybe you go back and forth on negotiations and end somewhere around the first scenario. Another way this could go is you state your salary, and their lowest offer was above yours. While it could be attributed to not knowing the market or valuing yourselves, it could be because you don't know their salary bands. This company either really wants you or just plain pays more than "market". If they're thinking $130K and you say $120K, you'll lose out on $10K/year.