The least helpful possible framing for this, I think. Refusing to answer altogether has all of the risks of giving too high/low a salary, and none of the benefits of actual negotiation.

If you're in a position where you can not answer, you're in a position there's no reason not to give them your desired salary up front and let them tell you why they can't do it. Pick a high number of course!

If you're in a position where you can't afford not to answer, you should pick a reasonable number, and take whatever they give you, because you completely lack agency. This is the case where you might screw yourself out of money, but if you need the job that badly, do you really care?

A better way to frame this, and this is always what I do if I have the agency to not answer, is to give them the number I'd like or remain mum, but either way when they make the final offer just ask them a simple question: "Is there any way you can come up a little bit from that?". If they say no, you decide based on that first number. But they'll almost always say yes, and you'll get a small effortless raise.

I've done this about 10 times across my career and about 70-80% of the time I've gotten a bump in the 5-10% range. Which means that, collectively, about 30-40% of my current salary level is a result of that one question, applied consistently over time.

You won't get a raise outside the salary band, but you might move from the median for that band up a notch or two within it, and that absolutely matters in the long run.

Nearly every time I've held out and not given a number I've gotten a much higher salary than the number I would have given.

It is true, of course, that when they give you the number that they leave money on the table for negotiation, that is standard practice. It's even factored into the offer amount at bigcorps, and chances are they have an amount they cannot go over and it's set. So you should always ask for more after they lay the money out.

Yes perfect advice -- negotiate from a position of leverage and always ask for that little bump at the end.

In my experience, not talking about salary early kind of sets everyone up to waste their time. One time it ended up with a full interview process that went very well for a job I thought would be perfect in an industry that _should_ have outstanding pay, and the resulting offer that was lower than my current role, paid hourly without benefits with a vague promise to later be an FTE; not only did we all waste our time, I was pretty upset about it. When I sent an email to the hiring manager they said "well you never told us your expectations" -- now the guy was dumb, he _knew_ I had a good job already, the comp he was offering was well below industry standard, and he knew my background, but nevertheless that is where a lot of hiring folks heads are at and it makes total sense: they want to get a good deal just like you do.

Asking for salary band is good, especially earlier in your career, but to me it's now kind of irrelevant -- for the same reason you will go high, they will try to go low. I have a price I will be happy at, I say a number higher in the beginning but say depending on how everything goes there may end up being flexibility, and that I look at the entire package holistically. This is just to assess: "is it worth us continuing to engage". Not doing this would have wasted a colossal amount of time.

I'm now in a position where I know where salaries generally are in different parts of the industry, and I can set a price based on what I expect and what my current role is, and I explain my reasoning. But yes: it depends so much on the situation. Benefits good? Growth potential at a startup good? Do I believe in the mission and that the founder won't abandon for an acquihire and tank my equity? Etc.

IMO leaving salary to late stages leads to a huge waste of time.

I am not going to spend time going to interviews, let alone preparing for them, many rounds over many days, just to discover at the end that their salary range is not a fit. I did that once, never again.

And of course if I'm interviewing, I'm not doing so with just one company, I'm talking to many. So now multiply that time waste by N companies? No thanks.

I confirm salary on the first intro call with the recruiter. If we're not on the same page, I just saved myself many days of what would've been wasted time.

Imho, there is an easy way to turn this around. Ask: "What is your range for the role?" Then it becomes easy to say: "Fine, I'm comfortable with this range", or maybe "Oh, I'm afraid I can't afford this".

Once you're at the offer stage, you can bargain about specifics.

but either way when they make the final offer just ask them a simple question: "Is there any way you can come up a little bit from that?"

I use a similar phrase and it works really well on recruiter psychology.

"If you can get me to ${SLIGHTLY_HIGHER_NUMBER}, I will sign today."

They want the deal closed, and you've just given them a super easy path to do it in their minds.

The real problem comes where you can't afford not to answer, and what's "reasonable," in their minds, is very unclear.