Pay Survey Practices - Part I

1
Pay Survey Practices - Part I

• Purpose of Pay Survey
• Price key or benchmark jobs in the market
• Examine both base salary and benefits
• Select Appropriate Market to Survey
• Local Market - min. wage, non-exempt jobs
• Regional Market - professional, middle mgmt. Jobs
• National/International Market - executive, scarce
  professional jobs
• Basis for selecting markets and pay comparators
• Who are competitors for employees?
• Which firms hire our exiting employees?
• Who are our competitors in the product markets?

2
Pay Survey Practices - Part I (Contd)

• Types of Pay Surveys
• 1. Private Survey - provided by consulting firm
  or trade association - most expensive, but has
  most useful information
• 2. Government Survey - Bureau of Labor Statistics
  (BLS) - low cost, but designed mainly for
  economic studies and research
• 3. Self designed Survey - company does an
  in-house survey Caution the courts may view
  this approach as a form of price fixing with
  possible fines and penalties.

3
Pay Surveys Critical Thinking Questions

• 1. Compare the Undergraduate CU pay survey to
  the MBA CU pay survey.
• Which is the highest paying UG major? MBA major?
  What accounts for the differences?
• Why is the spread in pay ranges (upper to lower
  bounds) so much greater for the MBA students?
• 2. How could you use the pay survey for
  obtaining an attractive salary on your next job?
• 3. Refer to Working Womans 1996 survey. Why
  are there such large differences in pay for the
  same job at different companies? What is your
  explanation?