Questions about salary requirements are one of the very few questions guaranteed to come up during a job interview or screening process, as well as almost always cause some severe awkwardness on both sides. Once you've found a great job, how do you demand what you're worth without sounding arrogant? What if you toss out a low number and lock yourself in at a loss, or shoot too high and scale yourself out of the running? The web's chock-full of tools to help you gauge a reasonable asking rate, and we've received some pretty sound advice over the years on how to pull off the salary tightrope walk. Follow along for a guide to finding and asking after just the right pay rate. Photo by AMagill


Use a salary search site

These things seem to have cropped up faster than social networks in recent years, and they all promise the same thing—an objective take on what people with similar skill sets are earning in their jobs. There are, of course, differences in methodology, accuracy, and what fields the sites cover best. Here's a rundown on some of the better-known comparison sites. Note: We're not covering the major job search sites—Monster.com, HotJobs, Yahoo!, etc.—because their salary comparison tools are often locked behind a sign-up wall or cover jobs as entire categories.


Glassdoor.com: Good for: Anyone in the tech or financial worlds, toward which the reports and reviews tend to tilt, or looking at a bigger-name company. Also, as of this morning, Glassdoor is opening up multi-currency salary information for companies in more than 100 countries, so those looking abroad should check it out.

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PayScale: Much more detailed data-sorting than most sites, with salaries detailed by years of experience, location, education levels, rather than just a job title at a company. Good for: Researching job scenarios you hope to have (editor in NYC, IT manager in Las Vegas, etc.) rather than trying to pigeonhole a specific company.

SalaryScout: Good for: Complementing other salary searches, and adding onto your job-finding RSS feed


Indeed: As we've mentioned before, job listing aggregator Indeed lets you pull off some interesting searches, including an all-options-open search for something like "Web editor $40,000," which will show you where you'll pull that salary for that job title anywhere in the country. If you're not looking to move, you can also compare salaries in a given zip code. Good for: Seeing if your salary estimates are anywhere near realistic, or finding alternative jobs in your market that pay just as much.


Stay quiet on your salary, or come out with it?

This is a topic that's spurred a lot of discussion. The post that started it said that saying what you want was a no-win game when it came to interviews, ending with you either leaving money on the table or nixing your chances at the job by shooting high. While we can't claim to be experts on the matter, we think commenter vered has a good point: If you're confident in your job hunt and really don't want to pen yourself in, you can refuse to offer your own number—but only if you're willing to let the job fall away. If not, you probably can't stonewall on the issue, and it's seemingly best to try and shoot a little high.


Checked your credit lately?

No matter what salary you end up asking for, a growing number of employers won't be giving it to you if your credit report has notable problems or is in general disrepair. If you haven't already checked it out, head to AnnualCreditReport.com to get your actually-free-once-a-year report, and be prepared with trustworthy explanations of any serious issues there. If an employer thinks you can't handle money, chances are, they won't be offering you as much of it. What tools or tips have you used to suss out how much pay to ask for? What salary-hunter sites have worked best for you? Share your stories in the comments.