True... but I was referring more to retail job applications. (Like Macy's and the like.)

When I was in a management position (back in my retail days) we had a salary requirement field on our job application. Regular employees started above minimum wage, but that information was basically for us to see what the applicant wanted to be paid. If they required $15/hr, well, they weren't gonna get that with us :p Not even the shift leaders got paid that much.

Yes, even on our waitress' applications it has a field for "expected pay." Unless they have TONS of experience, they all start at the same wage. But for those that have been doing it for years, it gives a starting point from which to negotiate.


PS-Cross your fingers for me to get this job. I'm 99% sure that I'm going to go back to get my masters in nonprofit management, and UGA has a good program so I'd need to move soon so that I can establish residency.

I have a new level of hate for this question.

I had one company that requested a specific range after I said I wanted something that was competitive. I SWEAR that this position's advertisment already had a salary range listed, otherwise I wouldn't have applied. So I don't understand why they were asking me again.

Errr... I based the range off of all the other jobs I saw advertised so hopefully that works.

I had a problem similar... my background has been in nonprofits for two years, but I was applying at for profit companies, so my desired salary I listed was $10-$15k more a year. People were like HUH? But I also explained that being in non profit my salary was very limited so I was compensated with bonuses, typically quarterly.
Many of the jobs I applied to didn't have any comp. salaries listed-and almost all asked for my current salary. I wrote seriously what I wanted to make down and went from there. Many people didn't call me because of it, or did and asked how restricted I was to that area.
It really depends on how badly you want the job, though.
Being in nonprofit is especially hard! GOOD LUCK!

It's interesting, now that I'm on the other side of the hiring process. The thing is, people ask for certain amounts of money, and it does automatically rule them out because I know they aren't looking for this particular type of positing. And that goes both ways... some ask for too much, some ask for too little.