I&#x27;ve been in situations where, despite telling them what I&#x27;m looking for, they&#x27;ve pressed me to disclose my salary. I&#x27;ve always been honest about it, but I can recall one specific instance where I disclosed my salary to a recruiter and told them that I was seeking a particular salary, only to be told, &quot;No one is going to give you that big of an increase.&quot; Who said anything about an increase? It&#x27;s about paying what I&#x27;m worth.<p>I&#x27;ve seen how a hiring company might look at a person who wants $X, but earns lower-paying figure and think, &quot;Well, market pay is $X, but if the company before was paying them $X-20%, we can get away with offering $X-15% or $X-10% because it&#x27;s a marginal increase for the applicant and we still save money.&quot;<p>evilduck, below: nails it with this[0]:<p>&quot;companies aren&#x27;t going to tell your their actual upper bounds for what they&#x27;ll pay in salary, why should you tell them your actual lower bounds? &quot;<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11678634" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11678634</a>