The 6 best salary comparison tools for 2022 (2023)

Before setting or negotiating an employee's compensation level, it's a good idea to conduct a salary comparison with compensation data collected for similar positions at other companies. The best salary comparison tools give you access to a wide range of data, from employee salaries and bonuses to employee benefits, covering many job types, skills and job titles in different industries and locations. Some are free to use and include wages reported by workers and employers, while others offer paid solutions that provide market-based pay data from comparative pay studies.

We evaluated a variety of solutions and narrowed the list down to our top six recommendations for salary comparison tools.

• Federal Office for Labor Statistics (BLS):The best general salary comparison tool
• actually:Best suited for a combination of employee and employer reported data and job postings
• ZipRecruiter:Best suited for employers who need easy-to-understand salary survey reports
• salario.com:Best suited for companies that need unique data filters to display salary data
• Lohnskal:Best suited for employers looking for a compensation scenario builder
• LinkedIn salary:Best for recruiters and LinkedIn users

Best compared salary comparison tools

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Best General Pay Comparison Tool

ÖDepartment of Labor Statistics(BLS) is the largest of its kind. It is a highly scientific government survey that is free to download. The data comes from quarterly employer surveys across the country and has the most robust filtering and downloading capabilities. This helps you account for organizational, regional, and other variances in compensation.

With an overall rating of 4.16 out of 5, BLS scored highly for pricing, comparison tools, and reports due to its free salary survey reports, employer-reported data nationwide, and multiple filtering options. It received a poor usability rating, mainly due to its outdated-looking website, which made salary reports difficult to navigate.

Bureau of Labor Statistics prices

You can download BLS' wide range of pay surveys and pay comparison reports (the other providers on our list either don't offer this option or charge more for it).

Ressourcen des Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Robust database:The database includes 800 professions and 400 industries with the following salary dataNorth American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)Industry Codes. The large data set of the BLS with standardized job titles and job descriptions also enables you to make a direct comparison. So while titles on other sites may vary widely over time, you can use standardized BLS position data, such as the 13-1111 code for management analysts, for year-to-year comparisons.
• Various filter options:Unlike Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn, BLS has many filtering options. Sort data by company size, full-time and part-time job status, hourly and performance-based pay, job level, job characteristics, and bargaining status (unionized or non-unionized). You can also filter by national, regional, state, metro, and city data to account for regional salary differences.
• Downloadable reports:Depending on the report type you choose, you can download salary data in PDF and XLS file formats. For survey results with charts, BLS lets you download your charts as JPEG and PNG images that you can attach to your own reports. None of the other providers in this guide have this functionality.

Bureau of Labor Statistics cons

While the large, standardized dataset and filters are great, they come at the expense of usability. The BLS interface is cumbersome and difficult to navigate and use. The datasets are large, but not very granular due to the patterning technique. This means you may not be able to find an exact match for your specific job if it doesn't match a profession or industry used by the BLS. There is also no company-specific data, which makes a competitive analysis difficult.

Indeed: Best for data reported by employees, employers, and job postings

actuallyis one of the largest job boards on the market. It has a robust salary record, which is a combination of information from past and current job postings on Indeed, including those reported anonymously by employees and employers. It's completely free, and since Indeed collects data from many companies, it's a good tool for competitor analysis.

Indeed scored 4.03 out of 5 in our review, earning perfect marks for pricing due to its free salary research tools. It had the lowest reporting score because you cannot download salary comparison reports. It also lacks robust data filters like Payscale, Salary.com, and BLS.

Current price

While Indeed's salary comparison tool is free, other solutions like sponsored jobs ($5 to $499 per day) and resume searches ($100 or $200 per month) require you to pay. However, posting jobs on their platform is free.

fact resources

• Large Salary Database:With a database of over 700 million salaries, you can easily view jobs with titles or job descriptions similar to yours. You have access to a variety of payment data by function, location and company. In addition to salaries reported by employees and employers, Indeed derives its salary information from job listings posted on its website in the last 36 months.
• Robust salary range data:You can see the averageI pay hourly wagesfor a specific job, including the salary range for that job. In fact, it also has a dropdown button that allows you to view daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly salaries. Also, being able to see the salary satisfaction ratings for a position is helpful as it adds information on how competitive your salary range is. In fact, however, it is missingprimaAmounts that many of the providers listed have (except ZipRecruiter and BLS).
• Key data of employee benefits:information aboutEmployee bonusallows you to consider changing and improving the performance part of your compensation package. Indeed allows you to view benefits and/or perks common to employees of a particular company (if available) and the selected position. These benefit options include health insurance, retirement plans, life insurance, paid time off, and stock options.
• Competitive Analysis:Because Indeed has a large salary database, you'll likely see how much competing companies are offering for the same position. In fact, it even lists companies that offer competitive salaries, including how much they were paid for the job — data ZipRecruiter, Salary.com, and the BLS don't have.

really disabled

In fact, it's great for getting a general idea of ​​the right salary for a single position. But it would be even better if you could download the data. This would allow users to refine their analysis e.g. B. Removing outliers or focusing on specific competitor companies. The downloadable data would also allow employers to automate the process if they need to review a large number of jobs or want to keep an analysis going.

Read the full Indeed review

ZipRecruiter – Best suited for employers who need easy-to-understand salary comparison reports

ZipRecruiteris an online talent marketplace and recruitment solution to post jobs and find qualified candidates. It also offers a salary comparison tool that includes compensation information from job listings posted on its website and third-party data sources (like ADP). Your salary survey results are easy to understand and include a brief but helpful summary explaining the average annual salary and salary range for the selected position.

In our test, it received an overall score of 3.91 out of 5 points. Ease of use and free salary comparison tools have contributed to its high ratings. However, ZipRecruiter's lack of data filters and downloadable salary survey reports prevented it from scoring higher on this list.

ZipRecruiter Pricing

You can use ZipRecruiter's salary survey tool for free. For their paid solutions, which include one-click job postings, resume bank access, and unlimited candidate applications, you must contact ZipRecruiter for pricing. Based on the quote we received, your pricing starts at $16 per seat per day or $299 per month depending on the plan type you choose.

Zip Recruiter Features

• Extensive database:Because ZipRecruiter gets most of its salary data from job openings that employers and recruiters post on its website (with over 7.5 million jobs posted daily), it maintains a massive database of salary details. It also has payroll data for 35,000 jobs, more than Payscale's 15,000 jobs. In addition, it uses compensation information from third-party sources, including ADP.
• Salary Survey Summary:ZipRecruiter is the only provider on this list that displays their salary survey details in graph and report format. They're useful for translating the numbers into information you can use when reviewing a position's salary competitiveness and planning what salary rate to add.offer letters🇧🇷 Other salary comparison tools like Salary.com may offer similar reports, but you will have to pay more.
• Flexible Salary Views:It might not have many data filters like Payscale, Salary.com, and BLS, but ZipRecruiter has flexible salary reporting options that make it easy to view hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly salary data for the position. It also has a "table view" that shows the salary range and average salary of different peoplepayment periods.

Disadvantages of ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter's online salary comparison tools may include a short, easy-to-understand summary report, but you can't download it or its bar charts showing average salary and salary ranges. It would also have been helpful to have data filters to show salary data based on various factors (like educational level and years of work experience). In addition, it does not contain information about bonuses and benefits, including the main competitors.

Read the full ZipRecruiter review

Salary.com – Best for businesses that want unique filters to view compensation data

salario.comis one of the oldest sources of salary data on the internet - the company was founded in 1999. It has 100% employer-reported survey data collected by data collectors and still offers a wide range of compensation management products and salary surveys. The information is updated monthly and there are some unique filters not available on other sites such as: B. Displaying salaries by performance and managerial level.

With a score of 3.78 out of 5, Salary.com ranks fourth, just behind the BLS. Its robust comparison tools with unique filters, multiple salary reporting options, and ease of use have earned this provider high marks. You got the lowest price because although you have a free salary calculator, you have to pay more if you want to download the report. Also, many of their price and salary comparison tools are paid solutions.

Salary.com prices

Salary.com has several free solutions like their online salary calculator with unique filters that include HR metrics and benefits survey data that you can download for free. For its paid options, Salary.com offers several products at different prices:

• CompAnalyst (compensation software):custom price
• Professional salary assistant (salary data subscription)
  • Month Signature:$499 for a data scope
  • Additions:$399 per month for each additional amount of data
• Industry Surveys and Datasets:$995 to $4,975 per report
• Personal Salary Report (for employees):US$ 29,95 bis US$ 79,95
• Job evaluation reports
  • A credit report:245 $
  • Three reporters:661 $
  • Five reporters:1.041 $
  • Seven reporting credits:1.372 $
  • 10 Report Evidence:1.837 $
  • 15 Report Evidence:2.573 $

Salary.com Resources

• Extensive database:Salary.com has a large database of employer-reported salary and benefits information with 800 million data points and compensation data spanning more than 4,000 reference jobs.
• Exclusive filters:Salary.com offers unique filters that the other salary comparison tools in this guide don't. In addition to data filters for location, education, and years of work experience, you can sort salary data by work performance, reporting lines, and number of direct reports. The performance filter applies standardized categories such as "excellent", "above expectations" and "poor" to each position. This might make more sense so as not to specify what to offer and whenhire employeesbut by identifying potential for promotions and raises during theperformance ratings🇧🇷 On the other hand, the "Logging in" option adds an instant admin title to the filtering features.
• Comparative salary and benefit data:You get a wide range of salary data showing percentages and quartile averages so you can see the salary distribution for the selected position at 10%, median (50%) and percentiles up to 90%. It also provides bonus and benefit data and, unlike Indeed, shows the cost of expected employer contribution per benefit (e.g. health insurance, pension and social security).
• Multiple records and search options:Salary.com offers a variety of options to fit the budget of any person or business. With over 4,000 jobs compared, it's not as comprehensive as Payscale's 15,000 jobs and ZipRecruiter's 35,000 jobs, but Salary.com provides employer-reported data, which tends to be of higher quality, so it's a large, high-quality dataset. You can also choose between ad hoc analysis and continuous investigation.

Disadvantages of Salary.com

While it has a great dataset, some of Salary.com's reporting tools feel a bit dated. Also, the range of products and services is a bit confusing to navigate. It would be better if everything was condensed into a simpler presentation.

Payscale - Best suited for companies that want to create custom payscale scenarios

Lohnskalis an easy-to-use tool that contains robust data reported by workers and employers. Like Salary.com, it has a wide range of compensation research and management tools, although Payscale lets you create your own compensation scenarios, whether you need to create an organizational unit with new roles or a whole new company. This gives you a more holistic view of your payroll costs than the other pay comparison tools in this guide. Also, the reports are simple and easy to understand, but the large number of job titles can make it difficult to properly compare titles.

It scored 3.56 out of 5 in our test, with perfect scores for comparison tools and 3+ ratings for reporting features and ease of use. However, the non-transparent pricing of its paid salary survey solutions and services contributed to its low ratings.

pay bulk price

While you can use their Price a Job tool for free, you should contact Payscale for pricing information for their paid products such as Insight Labs, Benchmark, Payfactors, MarketPay, and Compensation Surveys.

Salary table features

• Robust data set:Payscale has a comprehensive database of 65 million salary profiles, 15,000 job titles, 3,000 skill types and 6,000 industries - larger than any salary comparison tool we've reviewed. And depending on which Payscale product you get, you'll have access to employee or employer-reported payroll data.
• Different filters:Although you don't have Salary.com's performance and management level filters, you can sort the data by job title, work experience, region, and industry. It also shows job satisfaction ratings, top performers and bonuses, skills that affect wages, and a percentage breakdown by gender for the selected job.
• Feature-rich solution set:Payscale offers a wide range of solutions for building and managing your company's compensation package and strategies. In addition to salary survey tools, it has cloud-based compensation management software and an online job description manager to help you save and saveCreate job descriptions🇧🇷 This is crucial when doing salary comparisons and research as it will help you find the perfect matches for selected positions.
• Compensation Scenario Generator:Their benchmark solution includes the ability to create compensation scenarios to help you review market data and payment trends. This makes business planning and organization a bit easier, as it gives you a holistic view of salary costs, whether you're starting a new business or looking to improve your organizational structure by adding job titles.

Disadvantages of the collective agreement

As with Salary.com, it can be difficult to understand the differences between Payscale's products: they have Benchmark, MarketPay, Insight Labs, and other compensation data sets. They all seem to be market comparison products. With so many jobs in the database (15,000 options) it can be difficult to match jobs to their specific roles.

LinkedIn Salary: The best for recruiters and LinkedIn users

LinkedIn salaryprovides salary information for the selected position so you can better understand the factors that may affect pay. Unlike the other providers of this guide, its data is primarily information provided anonymously by its employed members. However, it's great for recruiters who areUse LinkedIn to find qualified candidatesas they do not need to switch tools when checking prevailing market rates for positions. Also, their salary comparison tool is easy to use and understand.

In our review, LinkedIn Salary received an overall rating of 3.54 out of 5. Its free and easy-to-use tools, which show base salary details based on education level, company size, and other data points, contributed to its scores. However, a lack of downloadable salary comparison reports prevented him from being ranked higher on our list.

LinkedIn Gehaltspreis

LinkedIn salary is free if you are an employee providing your own salary information. Those with a premium subscription ($59.99 per month) can access LinkedIn salary without having to provide their salary details online. Employers and recruiters who have a LinkedIn Recruiter Lite plan ($139.99 per month) can also use the salary survey tools.

LinkedIn Gehaltsressourcen

• Solid Salary Data:In addition to a salary range, LinkedIn Salary displays base salaries by category. These categories include company size, industry, education, field of study, location, and top-paying companies. While it gives the estimated base salary plus additional compensation (e.g. a bonus), it does not detail the base benefits.
• Data filter:LinkedIn Salary lets you filter salary data by industry and experience. It lacks the robust selection of filters offered by Payscale, Salary.com, and the BLS.
• Competitive Analysis:Like Indeed, you'll get insight into companies that offer competitive salaries for the job you're looking for salaries for.

LinkedIn Pay cons

Because LinkedIn Salary is based on employee-reported data, it is subject to potentially inaccurate reporting by those who only want access to the salary comparison tools. It is best to supplement your payment information with information from the employer or salary information from job advertisements on their website. Also, it's good for one-time analysis, but not for many jobs or tracking salary trends over time.

Tips on using salary comparison tools

Completing salary surveys is a critical process in building your company's compensation program. This way you ensure that you pay your employees at market rates, allowing you to attract and improve qualified candidatesemployee retentionwhat is more Regardless of which salary comparison tool you use, here are some important things to do.

How we picked the best salary comparison tools

We looked at different payment comparison tools and compared the data sources of each solution and the types of payment information provided. We also considered other features such as downloadable reports, amount of data available, and ease of use. And while most have free salary survey tools, we checked if they offer an affordable paid version.

Click on the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of our judging criteria.

Conclusion

Regardless of the size of your business and the type of business you run, you should use salary comparison tools to determine whether or not your salary package is in line with the market. Access to up-to-date salary data also helps you develop compensation strategies to attract new hires and retain current employees. Some even provide information on HR best practices, e.g. B. when hiring qualified candidates,integration of new employees, and more.

we found thatDepartment of Labor Statisticsoffers the best value for money. It is free to use with an extensive data set drawn from national surveys conducted by the government. Job salary ranges, various filters, and various included data points (like salary quartiles, pay for years of work experience, and broad industry coverage) are also very helpful. You can even download your reports and graphs in multiple file formats for free.

Get started with BLS' salary survey tools today.

Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics