Salary Benchmarking and Compensation Transparency
Compensation is a fundamental driver of attraction, retention, and engagement. Getting it wrong — paying below market, having unexplained disparities, or keeping compensation opaque — contributes to talent loss and erodes trust. Salary benchmarking and appropriate compensation transparency are increasingly standard in technology organisations.
Salary Benchmarking
Benchmarking compares your compensation to market rates for equivalent roles, seniority, and location. Data sources: Levels.fyi (technology-focused, excellent data on senior roles), Glassdoor/Indeed (broad coverage, variable accuracy), LinkedIn Salary, and specialist recruiters in your market who have direct insight into offers being accepted.
Benchmark to What Percentile?
Most technology organisations benchmark to the 50th-75th percentile (median to upper-quartile) of market rates. Below median in a competitive market means losing candidates and experiencing higher attrition. Above 75th percentile is sustainable only if compensated by other factors (equity, mission, flexibility) or if you are deliberately paying above market as a talent strategy.
Pay Equity
Regular pay equity audits identify unexplained gaps by gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics. Unexplained gaps should be investigated and resolved — legally, they expose risk; ethically, they reflect a fairness failure. In the UK, organisations with 250+ employees are required to publish gender pay gap data annually.
Compensation Transparency
Publishing salary bands — at minimum internally — enables employees to understand the compensation structure and trust that decisions are principled. Some organisations publish salary bands publicly in job postings (increasingly common in the US, becoming more common in the UK). Transparency reduces negotiation inequity and increases trust.