As I interview for new job opportunities, I am struck by the phrase "competitive salary" during negotiations but competitive with what exactly? The market? The role? The cost of living? Or just whoever accepted the lowest offer last time? I find what it often translates to is: “Tell us what you’re earning now, we’ll add a couple of grand and hope you don’t notice you’re still 10% under market value.” Competitive salary without context is just noise dressed up as confidence. Thoughts?

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Throwaway phrase, in my opinion. Competitive is not specific in any way. I do make sure that I know what would be competitive for the location, role, etc. Always do your research. Have pay transparency laws changed anything for anyone in such an area?

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I’ve been in situations where it was a well-known company, and I just kind of assumed they’d actually pay competitively. It wasn’t until after I started looking around and realized they were on the lower end.

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It's one of those phrases that organizations feel they have to use, but you're right that it may not mean very much. What constitutes a market rate for a job is always shifting anyway. In a job market like this, potential employers can make lower offers. It's not a matter of being competitive so much as just being a function of what people will accept in the current conditions.

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Employers slap it on postings because it sounds better than we'll pay whatever we can get away with, but in reality, especially right now in early 2026, it's way more about what the market will bear than some fixed fair benchmark.

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