One of the most important factors to consider when approaching a compensation problem is how competitive the market is for the position being looked at. Especially today, in one of the most competitive job markets in over a decade, according to CBS Money Watch (May 2018). With current U.S. unemployment at a rate of 3.7% for October, it is important to know what the going compensation rate is for the position in your industry that you desire (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Of course, as a soon-to-be college graduate, it is an interesting and important subject to know how much I am “worth” in the eyes of potential employers.
For people on my side of the "compensation game" there are many sites available to check self-reported salaries. These include Glassdoor and Indeed.com, to name a few. But, how accurate are these and do compensation analysts in hiring companies use these to determine how people are paid?
For people on my side of the "compensation game" there are many sites available to check self-reported salaries. These include Glassdoor and Indeed.com, to name a few. But, how accurate are these and do compensation analysts in hiring companies use these to determine how people are paid?
From my intern experience in the health care industry, there are three main resources that are used in determining the market value compensation for positions. These are Payscale.com, Salary.com, and survey results. As you can tell from the title of this post, here I will address the first two resources. Salary.com and PayScale.com are websites where employers and employees can create their own accounts and run compensation reports for various positions by cities/metro areas, years of experience, and level of education. See a screenshot below of salary.com's landing page. There is a platform for Business and Individuals and even a portal for Compensation Analysts to personalize their use of the software for the company that they serve. I use this CompAnalyst portal in my current role and it allows you to save job descriptions and locations which can be selected conveniently from a drop-down menu when running reports.
These are excellent resources when looking for a quick prediction of a salary range for candidates of differing years of experience and in different locations. It is important to note that PayScale comes from self-reported, employee data while Salary.com is data reported from companies themselves. Naturally, the market values generated through PayScale trend lower than those of Salary. I speculate that this could potentially be from an after-tax employee bias as the population focuses more on net income than gross income.
These are excellent resources when looking for a quick prediction of a salary range for candidates of differing years of experience and in different locations. It is important to note that PayScale comes from self-reported, employee data while Salary.com is data reported from companies themselves. Naturally, the market values generated through PayScale trend lower than those of Salary. I speculate that this could potentially be from an after-tax employee bias as the population focuses more on net income than gross income.
Up next, I will talk more about survey reports from consulting firms specializing in compensation strategies and structures.
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/for-class-of-2018-its-the-best-job-market-in-a-decade/
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
www.payscale.com
www.salary.com
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