Employers sometimes use “desired” salary as a resume or application sorting tool.  Candidates with high (or too high) salary expectations go into one pile, and the candidates that look like they would be satisfied in the salary range go into another (also, candidates that indicate salary is negotiable will usually go into this preferred group). 

What most of us want when we relocate to a new job is a salary that will support the cost of living comparable to what we think we deserve.  The reason I bring this up, in addition to being sort of a universal truth, is that cost of living changes by location and can even change in city to city and county to county comparisons, which is typical in Southern California.  To maintain a certain standard of living the salary you would need to earn at a job in downtown Los Angeles can be thousands or tens of thousands more than the same job (for example) here in the Desert. 

Then, there are they intangibles which don’t have directly associated costs as does real estate, automobile insurance, gasoline prices, etc.  These intangibles can be as simple as a reduction in commuting stress, which you don’t instantly link today to some future health issue, whether it is diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.  Now, what I am saying is not that the Desert is Shangri-La (even though Tahquitz Falls and pond below were used for location shooting in the 1937 movie Lost Horizon). 

The idea I do want you to take away from this discussion is that the amount annual salary isn’t the only determinant of whether you will benefit from job relocation.  So, if you are sitting in Omaha reading the salaries that go with the jobs Irvine, California, remember that similar jobs working for Riverside County in the Desert might just pay you a higher dividend over time.  If you are a social worker in Chicago, the things that seem to be impossible to get done in that system, could be very doable here.

Well, I have digressed from my original subject, so let me see if I can rap this entry up in some sensible order: 

• Leave salary requirement open ended, for best results.
• In an interview situation you can always turn the question of salary back to what the employer would expect to pay for a person with your training and experience. 
• If you are offered a job and find yourself in a salary negotiation, be sure you at least have some idea of cost of living comparisons.  There are a number of cost of living calculators out there on the web, try a couple of them out to see how they perform for you.
• If you don’t already know, check with the employer to see if there are any recruiting incentives for your particular job specialty or profession.
• And finally, don’t forget to weigh in the intangibles as part of your decision making process. 

(It just occurred to me, I wonder if you get to negotiate salary at a Saturn dealership?  I think you are on your own with this one.)