Salary Survey Data Use

MNHRPRO

I posted this on the Wage and Hours board but it doesn't seem to be as frequented as this one so this is a repost. Thanks!


When you are trying to establish a salary range for a position, which portion of a salary survey do you use:

1) weighted means base salary
2) unweighted means base salary
3) base salary (P10,Q1,Q2,Q3,P90)
4) the range that's provided based on the data returned (minimum-mid-maximum)

If you use the weighted or unweighted means, or base salary, do you use it as the minimum salary or the mid-point?

Finally, what is your compensation range spread? Ours is 35% from minimum to maximum for non-exempt positions and 50% from minimum to maximum for exempt positions.

Thank you for your help!

davids

I have to admit I am not sure what all of the four choices are, but I believe we are using number 4, the range provided (minimum - mid - maximum). However, we adjust the range based on "total compensation." That is, we factor in health insurance and retirement contributions paid by the employer; and factor out the same costs paid by the employee. We believe health insurance and retirement contributions are a major part of the compensation package as we (the employer) fully pay the health insurance contributions for employee and family. We also make retirement contributions for the employee.

The results of our last survey indicated that based just on base wages, our employees were generally paid at or just below market. When we looked at total compensation, our employees were generally above market. We have made a conscious decision to put our compensation dollars towards the benefits side and be a bit low on the wage side. Some will argue that this strategy impacts recruitment (as they believe that applicants only look at base wages), but I disagree.

We are now discussing factoring in paid leave time as part of total compensation. It will make data gathering more complex, but may give us a truer picture of how our total compensation stacks up against our comparators.

We have narrow compensation ranges varying from a spread of about 22% to 27%. This appears to be similar to our comparators (municipalities).

HRinVA

Another approach is to target the midpoint of your range to average salaries - I would use #1 - and set your min and max based on your range spread.

Cheryl S SPHR

We have some definitions that we have developed for setting our grade levels. In terms of comparing our grades to salary data, I compare our midpoint to market (average salary or 50th percentile).

Our grade level spread is similar to yours -- compa ratios of 80 to 120; with midpoint at 100 for a spread of 40. It is the same for both exempt and non-exempt.