Salary prep
The awkward question is easier when you've already answered it once, in writing, away from the pressure of the call. Salary Prep is where you work out what you want, and every application then measures itself against that number.
Set it up once. It takes a few minutes and it pays off on every posting after.
Your rate
Everything is built from one base hourly rate and a currency, even if you never work by the hour — it is just the unit everything else converts from. Days, weeks, months and years are derived from it (8-hour days, 5-day weeks, 21.75 days a month).
Region rates
A rate that's right for one market is wrong in another. Add a region rate and that region gets its own number and its own currency, replacing the base entirely rather than converting it.
Rate adjustments
Percentages that shift your rate depending on what the job is:
- Employment type — contract vs permanent
- Work arrangement — on-site, hybrid, remote
- Company type — agency, direct client, and so on
They stack. A remote contract at an agency applies all three, added together, to whichever base rate the job's region selects.
Freelance or employed
The Rate Preview turns a rate into what actually reaches you: gross and take-home, by month and by year, for freelance and for the employment salary that would net you the same amount. That second number is the useful one when a recruiter asks for a salary expectation and you've been quoting day rates.
Three assumptions drive it, all editable because the right value is country-specific and nobody's flat percentage is correct:
- Billable hours a year (default 1,680 — not 2,080, because you will not bill every working hour)
- Freelance deductions — tax, contributions and costs together (default 45%)
- Employment payroll tax (default 32%)
These are flat estimates, not real progressive tax tables. They're for comparing two offers on the same footing, not for filing anything.
On an application
An application's Salary tab is where the preparation gets used. Record what you asked for, and if the posting states a range you'll see straight away whether your ask sits within, above or below it — converted across currencies and periods, so a yearly range in dollars and an hourly ask in euros still compare.
The rate your settings calculate for this specific job is offered there as well, by hour, day, month or year, one click to use it. That's your region rates and adjustments applied to this posting's actual employment type, arrangement and location.
Salary never affects your match scores. Matching answers whether you fit the work. Whether the money is acceptable is a decision that stays yours, and a job you'd take for the right number should not be scored down before you've been asked.