Should I give a monthly or an annual figure when I am asked about salary in English?

Answer in the unit the interviewer uses, and say the unit out loud so nothing is ambiguous: sixty-two thousand a year, gross or five thousand two hundred a month, gross. If they quote a monthly figure while you hold an annual target, convert before you answer rather than during it, and keep gross with gross. When you cannot tell which unit the band is written in, ask one short question first, then give your number.

Two conversions are worth writing in a phone note before the call, because doing them out loud invites mistakes: your annual target divided by twelve, and the same target divided by thirteen for markets that pay a thirteenth month. In parts of Europe and Latin America a thirteenth or fourteenth payment is normal, so a monthly figure can be thirteen or fourteen times the base rather than twelve, and it is fair to ask which one the contract uses. A signing bonus and a quarterly bonus work differently again: they are usually quoted apart from base and should be compared apart from it.

The Salary Question in an English Interview: What to Say When They Ask →