It sounds like an existential query posed late at night after one too many glasses of red wine, but for a job hunter, it’s more of trick question. More and more classified ads–both in print and online–are suggesting you send your resume and your salary requirements. For someone already stressed out by the job hunt, this little exercise in “guess the right answer” is nerve-wracking.

You can usually postpone the compensation question with a sentence or two in your cover letter that suggests you’re looking for a salary in line with your experience. Once you’re on the hot seat, it’s way too easy to be thinking of a number (say “50 thousand”) and then blurt out you’ll take the job for $40,000 because you’re afraid your salary request is too much. Employers are counting on this. They have a vacancy to fill. You want a job. And if you offer to work for ten thousand dollars under the money, they’re not going to object. It’s a lot easier to ask for what you’re worth if you have the facts on the tip of your tongue.

Freelancers are especially vulnerable to compensation insecurity. Mindful that a lot of employers have a “there’s plenty more where you came from” mentality, they’ll often undervalue their services and then want to pull their hair out. (Which is how my friend Odille felt after bidding for a translation job and then discovering everyone else had named a price several hundred dollars higher. (The employer laughed about it.) She got the gig, but hated the work and vowed never again.)

So you need to bolster your self-esteem with some hard facts about what jobs are worth in real dollars. That means doing some research. Check out the free Salary Wizard on our site. Not only will you be able to see what the going rate is in your industry, you can get an idea of what you could make if you changed careers. (It’s not too late to get into medical billing!) Freelance work is covered as well as traditional jobs, so don’t let anyone tell you the going rate for designing a brochure is … $2 a page.

Finally, don’t let yourself get bluffed. If a company isn’t willing to pay the going rate, it’s a bad sign overall. Raises are going to be few and far between and likely to be the skimpiest cost-of-living adjustments possible. Assuming you’re not inflating your expertise, you deserve an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.

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