You’ve got a job offer in hand! Now you need to determine if the total compensation package is fair and whether you should request a salary counteroffer. There are many factors that influence a salary offer: location, company size, type of company, experience, and education levels. If you have been offered additional compensation (an annual bonus, sign-on bonus, stock incentives) you will need to do more research. With some analysis using the sites below, you can get a pretty good idea of a fair salary for the type of work you will be doing.
Tips for Using Salary Comparison Tools
Understanding Job Matching
Some companies have very consistent job titles, many do not. When using the survey tools, carefully evaluate the match of the job you have been offered vs. the job you choose from the survey. if your target position typically has a Senior-level title, you should search for salary survey information for both the lower and higher job titles. Filter the results by as many variables as you can to get data that closely matches the position you are researching. If you cannot filter by location, I would not suggest using the provided data.
Choose Your Matched Jobs Carefully
Many of the tools provide the total number of responses used in calculating the survey information. If the total number of responses is low the reported salary data may not be reliable and should not be used.
Pay Attention to Total Compensation
Many of the survey tools report on average bonus amounts. These should be removed from your survey data so that all your salary comparisons can be equalized. If your company HAS offered you a bonus, you can use the survey tools to assess that information separately. Note - There are many other factors that impact a job offer. This blog focuses on analyzing annual salaries. You can also use this great TOTAL COMPENSATION TOOL which will help you compare apples to apples between different job offers.
Salary Tool | Purpose | How You Can Search | Notes |
Provides job and salary info as well as future outlooks. | A wide variety of methods. | Government-run site. Has best quality data from employers. | |
Dept of Labor site that can be used as a source for career exploration, training and jobs. | By occupation and job location | Government run site. Has best quality data from employers. | |
This site is known for its job board, but also provides company information on salaries, employee reviews, and benefits. | Desired job title, company or location. | Employee reported salary data only. Can only see average salaries or those from job posts. | |
Salary research tool for employees and employers | Search by job title and location. Choose the best matched title. | | |
Salary research tool for employees and employers. | Search by job title, years of experience and location. | You must pay for a detailed salary report. | |
Top-rated | Searching by job title and location will return related jobs with salary ranges. | Not all companies post salary ranges but the list is growing. | |
Look at company culture, benefits, rating, employee employee-provided salaries. | Search by job title and location. Can also search by years of experience. | Must create a profile and leave a review. Provides Senior level and average bonus information. |
A Sample Market Salary Survey Analysis
A job searcher with 2 years of experience as a financial analyst has received a job offer for an NYC company for $65000 and a $6000 annual bonus for $71,000 total compensation. Is this offer competitive?
Understand Your Results and How to Use in Salary Negotiations
The average figure at 10% is what a LOW experienced person is generally making as a Financial Analyst. Someone at this salary is paid lower than 90% of all other Financial Analysts. The average figure at 90% is a very HIGHLY experienced person, most likely over 10 years of experience. Someone at this salary is paid higher than 10% of all other reported Financial Analysts. The median figure is the AVERAGE salary for an experienced Financial Analyst, usually working for 3 – 5 years. "Minimum is the lowest or starting salary, usually for new graduates with the minimum level of experience. "Max" is the limit in terms of salary for what the job is worth. A person in the maximum salary range usually has an extremely high amount of experience performing the duties of the surveyed position.
Sample Job Analysis and Salary Comparison:
$78,888 is roughly 3-5 years of financial analyst experience WITHOUT a bonus in New York City.
The job searcher has 2 years of experience so their salary should be somewhat approaching the midpoint of $78,888.
Users can search LinkedIn salaries by years of experience. Financial Analysts with 1 year of experience are reported at $70,000 in the NY Metro Area.
Salary.com reported an average annual bonus of $1,000 and LinkedIn reported that 31% of Financial Analyst respondents in NYC reported a $6000 average bonus.
SUMMARY: The bonus is competitive. The $60,000 offer is low and should be closer to the mid-70s. Formulate a counteroffer for salary negotiation.
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