Salary Requirements in a Cover Letter: How to Include Them, With Examples

Include salary requirements in a cover letter only when the posting explicitly asks for them, and put them in one or two sentences in the second to last paragraph, just before your closing line. Give a range rather than a single number, keep it about ten to fifteen percent wide, and reference the request so it does not read as presumptuous. The standard construction is "As requested in your posting, my salary requirement is in the [X] to [Y] range, and I am flexible on the overall package." Never open with it, never leave it out when it was asked for, and never write only "negotiable."

That is the whole answer. The rest of this is about the parts that go wrong: where the sentence sits, which number to put in it, and what the employer does with it once you have sent it.

When to include salary requirements, and when to leave them out

The rule is narrower than most advice suggests. If the posting asks, include them. If it does not, leave them out entirely, because volunteering a number in a document nobody asked to contain one reads as odd and gives away your anchor for free.

The grey area is a posting that asks obliquely, with a line like "please include compensation expectations" buried in the application instructions rather than the job description. Treat that as a request. Some employers use it as a quiet screen for whether you read the posting to the end, and a missing number can cost you the application even when the number itself would have been fine.

The other grey area is a form that has its own salary field plus a cover letter upload. Answer the form field, and repeat the range in the letter only if the posting asked for it there too. Giving two different numbers in the same application is the one genuinely damaging mistake here, because whichever is lower becomes the one that counts.

Where the sentence goes in the letter

Second to last paragraph. Everything above it should be the case for hiring you, and the compensation line should land after the reader has already decided you are worth reading. Putting it in the opening paragraph, which people do when they are anxious about it, reframes the entire letter around money before you have established that you are worth any.

How to write salary requirements in a cover letter: the wording

Three things belong in the sentence: an acknowledgement that they asked, a range, and a note of flexibility. The acknowledgement is not politeness for its own sake. It signals that you are answering a question rather than making a demand, which is the difference between a number that invites a conversation and one that invites a filter.

Keep the range narrow. A spread of ten to fifteen percent reads as someone who has researched the role. A spread of forty thousand dollars reads as someone who has not, and it invites the reader to assume the bottom is your real answer. Which it will be treated as anyway, so choose a bottom number you would genuinely accept.

Example 1: the standard version

As requested in your posting, my salary requirement is in the 95,000 to 110,000 range, based on current market rates for this role in the Denver area. I am flexible on how the overall package is structured and would welcome the chance to discuss it.

Example 2: when you want to keep the number open

You asked for salary requirements, so I want to give you something useful rather than skip the question. Based on comparable senior analyst roles in this market I am targeting the 120,000 to 135,000 range for base salary. If the level is set differently than I have assumed, I would rather talk it through than anchor on the wrong figure.

Example 3: when the role is hourly or contract

Per your posting, my rate requirement is 70 to 85 dollars an hour for a W-2 engagement, or 85 to 100 for 1099, reflecting the difference in employment taxes and benefits. I am happy to discuss the scope before settling on a figure.

Which number do you actually put in?

Build the range from market data for that specific title, level, and metro area, not from what you currently earn. Your current pay is the wrong input, and in much of the country the employer is not allowed to ask for it anyway: seventeen states and the District of Columbia bar private employers from asking what you earn or have earned, with Virginia the most recent to join on July 1, 2026. None of those laws stops them asking what you require, which is exactly why the two questions need different answers.

Where the employer is legally required to publish a good faith pay range in the posting, and a growing list of US jurisdictions now require it, read the range off the posting and answer inside its upper half. There is no reason to guess at a number that has been printed above the job description. It is also worth spending ten minutes on what comparable live postings in your own field are advertising, since a specialist board for your discipline, whether that is current openings in your marketing specialty or an equivalent in your industry, will show you the real advertised bands faster than a general salary aggregator will.

Then set the bottom of your range at a figure you would take without resentment. This is the step people skip. Assume the offer arrives at the bottom of whatever you write, because that is usually what happens, and work the comparison in total compensation rather than base alone. A lower base with a real bonus and a meaningful employer retirement contribution can beat a higher base without them, and our total compensation guide has the component values to run that properly.

What happens to the number after you send it

In most companies the cover letter is read by a recruiter, and any figure in it gets checked against the approved range on the requisition. If you are inside it, nothing happens and you advance. If you are above it, one of two things follows: a recruiter who wants you will usually call and tell you the range is lower, or a recruiter with forty other applicants will move on without telling you anything.

That second outcome is the real risk of a high number, and it is silent, which is why researching the band matters more than picking a direction. It is also the argument against the opposite error. A number below the range does not get flagged as a bargain to be corrected. It gets accepted, and the difference is never mentioned to you again.

The number is not binding. It is a screening input, and once there is a written offer you are entitled to negotiate from what the role turned out to be, including the level, the scope, and the full package, none of which you knew when you wrote the letter. Saying so in the letter is unnecessary and slightly weakens it. Knowing it yourself is what matters.

Should you write "negotiable" instead of a number?

Not on its own. In a cover letter, "salary requirements: negotiable" answers a direct question with a non-answer, and a recruiter comparing you against candidates who gave a range has to guess where you sit. Some will guess low. Some will treat it as a failure to follow instructions, which is the thing the request was partly testing.

Pair it instead. Give the band, then say you are flexible on structure. That gives the recruiter something they can take to the hiring manager while keeping the shape of the offer open, and the structure is where a surprising amount of recoverable value sits: sign on, bonus target, equity, start date, and remote arrangement are all easier to move than base once a range has been approved.

Common mistakes worth avoiding

• Giving a number the posting did not ask for. You have anchored yourself for nothing.
• Two different figures in one application. The lower one wins, every time.
• A range so wide it means nothing. Eighty to one hundred and forty thousand tells the reader you do not know the market.
• Quoting your current salary. It is the wrong benchmark and it drags your new offer toward your old one.
• Apologising for the number. "I hope this is not too high" invites the reader to agree with you.
• Putting it first. The letter should earn the number before it names it.

What if the posting asks for salary history rather than requirements?

Answer the question you should have been asked. In the seventeen states and DC that ban the practice for private employers, including California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, and now Virginia, a request for salary history in a posting is often a template that was never updated. Respond with what you are targeting for this role rather than what you have earned, and there is no need to point out the law. Be careful with the lists that circulate online, several of which wrongly include North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where the bans cover state agencies only.

If you are somewhere the question is legal and it is asked directly, you can still redirect to your requirement without refusing outright. The full set of moves for both cases is in our guide to answering the salary requirements question.

The short version

Include the number only if asked. Put it in the second to last paragraph, as a narrow range, with a line acknowledging the request and a note that you are flexible on structure. Build the range from market data for the title, level, and location rather than from your current pay, and set the bottom at a figure you would genuinely accept, because that is the one you will probably be offered. Then treat the whole thing as screening, and save the actual negotiation for the point at which there is a written offer on the table.