How to answer 'What are your salary expectations?' in a New Zealand interview

Why you should answer with a range, and where to put it

A single number tends to draw a single counter-offer, while a range shows you have thought about the market and leaves room to talk. Keep it tight, something like $95,000 to $105,000, because a range $30,000 wide reads as a guess, and the employer will hear only its bottom.

Where you set the range matters more than how you phrase it:

• Put the bottom at a salary you would accept without resentment, for this role, with its commute and conditions.
• Put the top at the upper end of what the market pays someone with your experience.
• Say it as the salary you are looking for, not your current pay. The two are different questions, and only the first one helps you.
• Say whether it is plus KiwiSaver or total remuneration. With the employer contribution at 3.5%, the difference is real money.

Many people never have this conversation at all. Seek's 2026 research found that 46% of New Zealand workers have never asked for a pay rise, and only 32% feel comfortable starting that conversation.

Finding the range when the ad hides pay

Most of the time you will be building the range without help from the ad. Seek said in November 2023 that only about one employer in four showed a salary on its New Zealand job ads, though its listings showing a salary had risen by a third in a year. So gather your evidence before the first call:

• Ads for similar roles, at similar seniority and in the same region, that do show pay.
• What recruiters in your field tell you the band usually is. They are often willing to say.
• Offers you have received recently, and what colleagues in similar roles earn. Since 27 August 2025, employees in New Zealand are protected when they discuss their pay.
• For public sector roles, the published pay band for the position, which is often available on request.

Write the range down before the interview. When an offer arrives, the Negotiation Coach, part of On the Move, turns your evidence and the real offer into the words for the phone call and the email that follows.

Three scripts for three situations

When you know the market well. Answer directly, with a short reason:

When the role is unclear. Ask one question first, then answer:

When they insist on a single figure. Give the middle of your range, not the bottom:

In each case, stop talking once you have said it, and let them respond.

Turning it back: what is the band for the role?

Asking for the band is a reasonable question, and most recruiters will answer it. It saves time on both sides, and it tells you quickly whether the role is worth pursuing.

Ask it early, ideally in the first phone screen: "Before we go further, can you share the salary band for this role?" If they answer, compare it with your range. If their top is below your bottom, it is better to know now. If the band sits above your range, you can adjust upward, since you now have better information than you had when you set it.

If they will not share the band and press you for a number, give your range. You have prepared it, and a clear answer reads as confidence. Our guide to salary negotiation in New Zealand covers what to do when the offer arrives.

Recording the number you said

Write down what you said, to whom and when, beside the application. Across several applications it is easy to drift, giving $95,000 in one call and $90,000 in the next because you were nervous or the role sounded smaller.

A record keeps you consistent. When the offer comes, you can hold them to the range you gave: an offer at the bottom of it is within what you said, and an offer below it is a conversation worth having. Keep what the ad said about pay, what they told you the band was, and what they offered. Over a few months those numbers tell you a great deal about where your market really sits.

jobtracker.co.nz keeps those numbers on each job: what the ad said about pay, what you said you wanted and what they offered, shown side by side as take-home pay when the ad gave a range.

Give the same answer every time