What to say when they ask your salary expectations

A recruiter or employer may ask what you earn now, what you expect, or both. The reasons differ. The client's spec may have a line for it. They may be comparing packages, checking that the role is within reach of what you would accept, or following their own process. It varies from agency to agency and from client to client.

In an agency process the figure often goes on the shortlist next to your name, where the client may read it before your CV. You are entitled to ask why it is needed and how it will be used.

Who is asking, and why

When an agency asks, three parties are involved: you, the agency and its client.

In the common agency model the client pays the fee, often a percentage of your first-year package, and often only if a placement is made. The arrangement differs between agencies and between clients, so it is reasonable to ask how the fee works. If a consultant tells you a number is "very strong for the market", you can ask what the market figure is and where it comes from. A consultant with good data can usually show you.

The client often has a budgeted range, and someone who holds the budget. Where an offer lands inside that range is the employer's decision. They may look at the budget, their internal pay structure and market rates, and also at your experience, how scarce your skills are and the risk of losing people.

Your interest is to be paid what the role is worth to them, which is not necessarily a little more than you earn now.

Is it legal to ask for your payslip in South Africa?

As at 19 September 2026, no enacted South African law stops an employer or recruiter asking about your current salary or asking for a payslip.

A proposal, not the law

On 30 April 2026 an MP, Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, published a draft private member's bill for public comment: the Employment Equity Amendment Bill, 2026, known as the Fair Pay Bill. As drafted, it would stop employers asking applicants about their past or current pay, or setting pay on the strength of it, and it would require employers to disclose the pay or pay range when they advertise a job.

This is proposed legislation, not current law. When we checked the Parliamentary Monitoring Group's list of current bills on 19 September 2026, it had not been formally introduced in Parliament. It would still have to go through the Portfolio Committee and a vote, and a draft can change on the way. So check the date on anything that tells you the rule has already moved.

What POPIA says

What does apply is POPIA, the Protection of Personal Information Act. A payslip is personal information, so an employer or agency that collects one needs a lawful basis for processing it (section 11), and it has to meet the minimality condition.

That gives you the question to ask, politely, when a payslip is requested: what is it for, and is a full payslip, with your bank details and your deductions on it, more than that purpose needs?

POPIA's starting point is that personal information is collected directly from you (section 12(1)). Section 12(2) lists exceptions, including where you have consented to collection from another source, and where collecting it elsewhere would not prejudice a legitimate interest of yours. So a verification call to your current employer's payroll department is not automatically unlawful. Whether it is lawful turns on what the call is for, the basis relied on for processing it, whether you were told, and whether one of those exceptions applies. If nobody asked you and nobody told you, it is fair to raise it.

If the processing rests on legitimate interests or a public duty, rather than on your consent or a contract, you can object on reasonable grounds to do with your own situation (section 11(3)(a)). We know of no ruling from the Information Regulator on whether asking a candidate for a payslip is excessive under section 10.

In the middle of an interview process that is a lot of machinery. The practical move is to redact everything except the gross figure, or to offer a letter from your employer confirming the package instead.

Equal pay for work of equal value

Section 6(4) of the Employment Equity Act, added in 2013, is also relevant. It says a difference in terms and conditions of employment between employees "of the same employer performing the same or substantially the same work or work of equal value" is unfair discrimination if it is directly or indirectly based on one or more of the grounds listed in section 6(1). That list ends with "any other arbitrary ground".

It compares employees of the same employer who do the same or equal-value work. An offer based on your previous salary does not breach it on its own. It can become an equal-pay question if, for example, two people doing the same work for the same employer are paid differently and the difference is directly or indirectly based on a listed ground, such as sex, or on an arbitrary one. Whether a particular gap is unfair depends on the facts and on the reasons the employer gives for it.

What can happen if you refuse

It depends on the process, and they are not all the same.

A direct employer's recruiter may note it and move on, though some processes treat current or expected salary as a required field and will not go any further without it. With an agency, it depends on the agency and on the client. Some consultants will keep working with you and put your expectation on the submission instead. In other processes the client's form has a salary field, and an application without it may stall there. Candidates can be dropped over it, so decide with that in mind.

A short answer tends to work best on a call. You are looking for R X to R Y depending on how the package is structured, you have based that on the role rather than on your current salary, and you are happy to talk it through once you both know the job is a fit. Then stop talking.

One line to avoid is "I would rather discuss that with the client directly". A consultant can hear it as being cut out of their own process.

Building a number you can defend

A good test is whether your number survives one follow-up question.

Start with what you cost now, in full: basic, the employer's pension contribution, the medical aid contribution, a guaranteed thirteenth cheque, and anything else in the package. If you quote only the basic, an offer that looks like a raise can turn out not to be one. If that arithmetic is new to you, what CTC means on an advert works it through in rands.

Then adjust for the job in front of you, not for how you feel about it. More people to manage, a bigger territory, client contact you did not have before, a scarce registration or ticket, or a move to a company where the same title carries twice the scope. Give the reason when you give the number, because the reason is what makes it defensible.

Then check it against something outside your own head, which is where South African salary data gets difficult.

Where South African salary data comes from

Different salary datasets use different sources, and the source decides what a figure is good for.

Figures taken from job adverts show what was advertised, which is not necessarily what the person hired ends up being paid. They lean towards the roles and sectors that advertise most. What they have going for them is that they are current and easy to find.

Crowdsourced sites collect what people say they earn. They often do not publish their sample sizes, and where they do, a national figure for a whole profession can rest on a few dozen entries, with no way to tell a Sandton package from a Polokwane one.

Remuneration surveys from specialist consultancies are built on payroll data from the employers taking part. They are the closest thing to what people are actually paid, but they are usually sold to employers rather than published, so what reaches you is a summary.

Recruiter salary guides draw on an agency's own placements and on what its clients are offering. They give a sense of the range, but they can be a year or more out of date, so check the date on the cover before you quote one.

The one national series worth knowing is Stats SA's quarterly employment statistics. In the release of 30 June 2026, average monthly earnings in the formal non-agricultural sector were R29 997 in February 2026, including bonuses and overtime. Keep that figure out of any negotiation. It averages every formal job in the country, and its only real use is to show how far a national average sits from any one person's pay.

More useful than all of these: three conversations with people doing your job at other companies, and the ranges in the adverts you are actually applying to. A handful of local, current figures beats a big number with no method behind it.

Giving a range without capping yourself

Whatever range you give, the employer tends to hear the bottom of it. Set the bottom at a figure you would genuinely accept on the day, and keep the range narrow, because a wide one sounds like guessing.

Say what the number is measured against. With a pension and a medical aid in the package, the same take-home pay needs a bigger CTC than it does on a cash-only structure. So "R X cost to company, assuming a standard package with a pension" is more useful than a number on its own.

If you are asked to commit before you have seen the job spec or met anyone, say you will give a figure after the first interview. That is not evasive, and many clients accept it.

When the number should change, and when it should not

Change it when the job changes. If the role turns out to carry a team, a budget, standby, travel or a registration you had not been told about, revise the number and say which of those did it.

Do not change it just because somebody pushed. If a client comes back with "is there flexibility on that?" and nothing about the job has moved, the honest answer is that the number was based on the role and the role has not changed. Dropping it at the first push suggests the first number was not thought through.

The time to move is when the structure is genuinely different. A lower CTC with a guaranteed thirteenth cheque and a company car can beat a higher one without them. Work it out as take-home pay before you decide.

What "market related" means on an advert

It is not a legal term and it commits nobody to anything. Often a range has been budgeted and not published, and the reasons vary: some employers keep the band internal as policy, some want to hear your number first, and some have not settled it.

You are allowed to ask. "What range has been budgeted for this role?" is a normal question at the first conversation, and many employers answer it. If the range will not be shared before the offer stage, weigh that up early. Finding out at the end can cost you three interviews and two days of leave.

On Recruit 360 Jobs, an advert shows a salary or a range only where the advertiser has given one. What we hold about you, and what you can change, is in our privacy notice.

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To follow the number after you give it, what actually happens to your CV inside an agency tracks it through the process.