How Do I Add Salary Requirements to a Cover Letter?

Some career professionals feel the inclusion of salary requirements makes it too easy for HR managers to exclude individuals from candidacy. Unfortunately, this is very true. But when the hiring manager asks for salary requirements (btw, only include it when asked to do so), you run the risk of excluding yourself from candidacy by failing to disclose that which was asked for. Either way, you are presented with some risk.

Including salary requirements into a cover letter isn’t difficult; but understanding whether a prospective employer is seeking salary requirements or salary history is important to understand. Salary requirement is expected salary, while salary history covers starting and ending salary for each position, and may also include commissions, bonuses for performance, stock options, and so on. Since a salary history is in-depth, it’s usually contained within a separate sheet rather than the cover letter.

For salary requirements, a simple sentence should do the trick. For example: “My preliminary salary requirements are from $48,000 to $55,000, depending upon the benefit package offered by your company. I’m willing to discuss a different range, once we go through the scope of the position further.”