b'Median Salary: How to Price Jobs Competitivelyan employee should be paid with its resource of salary information for similar jobs in the job market. When pricing for jobs in your company, this tool can provide you with updated information on the Median Salary of specific job titles.HOW IS THE MEDIAN SALARY A RELIABLE GAUGE TO DETERMINE COMPETITIVE PAY? uses the Mean Salary because thisand specialized skills. Working con-When planning compensation, themethod of reporting does not consid- ditions of a job also affect the Median Median Salary is an effective startinger extreme variation. In this case,wage where the inherent danger, point that can help employers formpursuing the Mean Salary might leadhealth, and safety risks demand a better decisions around salary struc- the employer to overspend on com- higher pay to compensate for these tures for each employee, job title, andpensation. hazards.even for the entire company. SomeCompAnalyst is a tool thatDemographics employers may calculate the Meanallows employers to price jobs fairly Salary of a given data set of incomesand with confidence. With its largeAnother reason why the Median but the Median Pay provides a morepool of reliable HR-reported data,wage differs is the age, sex, and edu-accurate measure of central tendencyyou can pull salary information fromcation level of an employee. People because it discounts the extremesthe market to compare wages acrosswho are older usually earn a higher that may skew the results to make itcompanies and industries and calcu- Median wage because they have been look like it is normal to earn more.late a Median Pay on which you canlikely working for a longer period In reality, wages differ amongbase your compensation plan. and have gained more experience in employees in the same job family andtheir field. In the 2023 third-quarter industry because they differ in yearsWHAT ARE THE FACTORSreport of the Bureau of Labor Statis-of experience, educational back- THAT AFFECT MEDIANtics (BLS) about the Usual Weekly ground, skills, and performance. In aSALARY? Earnings of Wage and Salary work-typical corporate setup, a few seniorThree primary factors that affect Me- ers, we can find the womens-to-mens executives get higher pay because ofdian salary and can provide insightsearnings ratio and it tells us how their scope of work and level of workinto the difference in pay amongmuch a woman earns compared to experience, and their wage mightemployees. their male counterparts working for create a significant gap between thatthe same job. of the average employees who are inOccupationIt also allows us to deeply under-the same age group, years of work ex- One factor that affects the Medianstand the gender pay difference as the perience, and scope of functions. salary of employees is their occu- data intersects with race and ethnici-The high pay of these execu- pations. Certain professions havety. For example, the BLS reported that tives will be an outlier and will givehigher median salaries because theywhite women earned 82.9 percent misleading results if an employerrequire a higher level of educationas much as their male counterparts, MARCH 202415'