Feeling overworked and underpaid? Here are three ways of determining possible salary ranges for different positions within an organization.
There’s probably not one person working today who doesn’t feel that he should receive more money than he currently earns. However, understanding when this is really true and when it just feels like a reality is very important.
There are a couple of ways to determine how much the position someone currently fills should be paid: through salary survey analysis, reviewing on-line salary information, and just by asking around.
However, since each of these will probably net a variety of answers, it is wise to consider each one individually and remember that pay can be affected by a number of factors including employer size, industry, geographic location as well as the background, education and experience of each individual in a job category.
Asking Around
Talking to friends, family, co-workers, and those who work in similar positions in similar companies as well as looking at salary ranges listed in job postings and advertisements may provide information about what other people are earning, but it is the least reliable proof that someone is underpaid.
The difficulty with this type of information is that the number of resources is limited – a couple of friends and a few ads is not a sufficient population size – and there is not likely to be consistency in the type and size of employers. In addition, just because job titles may be similar, actual responsibilities may vary.
However, what this can help to do is shed light on whether or not there is a potential issue with someone’s current salary and help encourage him to speak with his human resources department to gather further information.
On-line Salary Information
Salary information can be found on-line at a number of websites including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook. What the federal government has done is looked at hundreds of different jobs and compiled data on training and educational needs, job responsibilities and working conditions, and potential earnings. This type of information is particularly helpful to someone who is considering a specific career as it can prepare him for what he might expect.
In addition, there are websites like monster.com that offer base pay information by geographic area based on a general job description. Keep in mind that according to the website, “The data is intended to provide a reasonable range for typical cash compensation earned by the typical person working in that job.”
Once again the information is helpful to gain a general idea of a potential salary or salary range for certain positions; however, the best salary data still comes from a complete analysis done by the human resources department.
To get the most accurate picture of what someone should earn for the position he holds, it is important to conduct an analysis by using salary surveys.
This salary survey analysis, generally handled by a human resources professional with an expertise in compensation, consists of reviewing data gathered by an external organization -- such as the Economic Research Institute (ERI) -- that specializes in compensation information gathering.
Organizations such as ERI gather detailed salary information by industry and geographic location and they get it from a wide variety of participating companies that provide it according to specific job duties, not job title. This way companies that use different job titles to describe similar jobs – say, janitor and housekeeper – can make better matches for more accurate comparisons.
These same organizations then compile and sort the information according to specific jobs within specific industries and within specific geographic locations. This enables participating companies to see if a janitor who mops and dusts at a hospital in North Carolina is paid differently than a housekeeper who mops and dusts at a hospital in California. But that's not the end of it.
Once a salary range has been determined for a particular job title within a specific organization, what any one person in that position actually earns will then be determined by their education, work experience and tenure with the company.
So while all three methods will shed some light on potential salary ranges for different jobs, formal salary analysis gives the truest picture of how a company values a position. And that’s why employees who feels they are overworked and underpaid should avail themselves of the information that the human resources department has in order to learn how much their job should pay.
