Top 6 Salary Comparison Tools for 2022

In the finance world, HR managers are faced with a difficult task. People will want to know what they’re worth in order to make them employers’ most valuable asset but different organizations have varying methods of payment and compensation.

The “global salary benchmarking tool” is a website that allows users to compare their salaries with other people in the same profession. It also provides information about the average salary for various professions, as well as how much you need to make in order to be able to afford certain things like rent or food.

You’ll need to undertake a salary comparison utilizing compensation data you’ve acquired for comparable positions at other organizations before you can determine or negotiate an employee’s pay level. The finest pay Comparative Analysis Tools provide you access to a comprehensive variety of data, from employee earnings and bonuses to employee benefits, that spans sectors and geographies and covers a wide range of job kinds, talents, and positions. Some are free to use and contain both employee and employer-reported wages, while others charge for market pay data obtained via salary benchmarking studies.

We looked at a number of options before settling on our top six salary comparison tool suggestions.

• The best overall wage comparison tool is the Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Indeed: For a mix of employee and employer-reported data as well as job posting data, Indeed is the best option.
• ZipRecruiter is the best option for companies looking for simple pay research reports.
• Compensation.com is ideal for businesses that want custom data filters to access salary information.
• Employers seeking for a pay scenario builder could use Payscale.
• Salary on LinkedIn: Recruiters and users will benefit the most from LinkedIn.

Comparing the Best Salary Comparative Analysis Tools

The best overall salary comparison tool comes from the Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

4.16 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• There are no charges for accessing and downloading wage comparison reports.
• Employer-reported data from government-run countrywide surveys is housed in a large database.
• Data filters that are reliable
• A large number of reports are available for download.

What Isn’t There

• Company respondent names aren’t revealed, and you can’t see a list of high-paying firms for a certain job.
• Bonus information is not accessible; just the proportion of companies that provide it is shown.
• Some reports are difficult to comprehend; they need the use of extra resources to verify job titles and/or industry codes.
• The website seems to be out of current.

Statistics from the Pricing from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Salary Comparative Analysis Tools are free to use
• The reports are available for free download.

The Statistics from The pay survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the biggest of its type. It’s a free download of a very scientific government survey. The data is derived from quarterly national employer surveys and offers the most advanced filtering and download options. This allows you to account for pay variances due to organizational, geographical, and other factors.

Earning an overall rating of 4.16 out of 5, the BLS scored high in pricing, Comparative Analysis Tools, and reporting given its free salary research reports, nationwide employer-reported data, and multiple filter options. It was rated poorly in User-Friendliness primarily because of its dated-looking website that makes it difficult to navigate through wage reports.

Job wage summary from the Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics salary survey (Source: BLS)

Statistics from the Pricing from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The BLS offers a broad range of pay survey and wage comparison reports for free (the other suppliers on our list either don’t provide it or charge extra for it).

Statistics from the Features of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Its database is robust, including 800 vocations and 400 sectors, with pay data organized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). You may also perform an apples-to-apples comparison using the BLS’s enormous collection of standardized job names and position descriptions. While job names on other sites might change dramatically over time, you can compare year-to-year salaries using the BLS’s standardized position data, such as code 13-1111 for Management Analysts.
• Unlike Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn, the BLS offers a variety of filtering choices. Sort data by company size, part-time vs. full-time employment, incentive vs. time-based compensation, work level, job characteristics, and collective bargaining status (whether union or non-union). To account for regional differences in wage, you may also filter by national, regional, state, metropolitan area, and county statistics.
• Downloadable reports: Salary data may be downloaded in PDF and XLS file formats, depending on the report type. The BLS allows you to download survey findings with charts as JPEG and PNG pictures, which you can then attach to your own reports. This is a feature that none of the other providers in this guide provide.

Statistics from the Drawbacks of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

While the large, standardized dataset and filters are great, they come at the cost of User-Friendliness. The BLS interface is unwieldy and difficult to navigate and use. The datasets, while large, are not very granular due to the standardization technique. This means you may not be able to find a precise match for your particular job if it doesn’t match an occupation or industry that the BLS uses. There is no company-specific data either, which makes competitive analysis more difficult.

Indeed: Best for Employee-reported, Employer-reported & Job Posting Data

Indeed

4.03 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• There are no restrictions; there are no limitations.
• Has nearly 700 million wages in its database; data sources include both company and employee-reported salaries, as well as pay information from job ads.
• Percentages of employees who are satisfied with their salaries are shown, as well as popular employee perks.
• Lists the best-paying firms for the job and area you’ve chosen.

What Isn’t There

• Only the basic pay is shown; bonuses are not included.
• The data filters aren’t very good; to view pay statistics based on talents, job experience, region, and business, you’ll have to navigate through its wage comparison page.
• There are no salary compensation records available for download.

Pricing is correct.

• Salary Comparative Analysis Tools are free to use

Indeed is one of the most popular job search engines. It includes a comprehensive collection of pay statistics derived from previous and current Indeed job posts, including those anonymously reported by workers and employers. Indeed is absolutely free to use, and since it collects data from so many businesses, it’s an excellent tool for rival research.

Scoring 4.03 out of 5 in our evaluation, Indeed earned perfect marks in pricing given its free salary research tools. It scored the lowest in reporting because it doesn’t let you download salary comparison reports. Plus, it doesn’t have Data filters that are reliable like Payscale, Salary.com, and the BLS do.

Indeed, a salary comparison tool is available (Source: Indeed)

Pricing is correct.

While Indeed’s wage comparison tool is free to use, additional services such as sponsored job ads ($5–$499 per day) and resume searches ($100 or $200 per month) cost money. Posting jobs on its site, on the other hand, is free.

Features that are true

• With a database of over 700 million wages, you may quickly find jobs with titles or descriptions that are comparable to yours. You have access to a variety of wage statistics organized by job title, location, and employer. Indeed gathers its salary data from job postings placed on its site in the past 36 months, in addition to employee and employer-reported earnings.
• You may check average hourly or salary pay for a certain job title, as well as the pay range for that job title, using our robust salary range data. Indeed also provides a drop-down menu for seeing wages on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Furthermore, having the opportunity to see compensation satisfaction ratings for a job is beneficial since it gives you an idea of how competitive your wage range is. Indeed, on the other hand, lacks the bonus sums that many of the suppliers on the list do (with the exception of ZipRecruiter and the BLS).
• Basic information about employee benefits: Employee benefit information allows you to consider if you should adjust or enhance the benefits portion of your remuneration package. Indeed allows you to see typical employee benefits and/or perks for a certain firm (where applicable) and the job you’ve chosen. Health insurance, a retirement plan, life insurance, paid time off, and stock options are among the advantages available.
• Competitor analysis: Because Indeed has such a vast wage database, there’s a strong possibility you’ll be able to see what other firms are paying for the same job. Indeed even specifies the organizations that pay competitive rates, as well as how much they pay for each position—information that ZipRecruiter, Salary.com, and the BLS do not provide.

Indeed, there is a disadvantage.

Indeed is useful for gaining a high-level idea of a particular position’s proper wage. However, if you could download the data, that would be much better. Users would be able to fine-tune their analyses, such as removing outliers or concentrating on certain competitive firms, as a result of this. Employers might also automate the process by downloading data if they need to assess a big number of jobs or want to keep an ongoing study continuing.

Read the Complete Indeed Review

Employers that need easy-to-understand salary comparison reports might use ZipRecruiter.

ZipRecruiter

3.91 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• It’s free and It’s easy to use.
• Has a straightforward and easy-to-understand online wage comparison summary
• 35,000 job titles are included in the salary database.

What Isn’t There

• The comparison reports are not available for download.
• Data on bonuses and perks isn’t available.
• Only enables you to examine wages by the hour, week, month, year, and in tabular format due to Data filters are limited..

Pricing for ZipRecruiter

• Salary Comparative Analysis Tools are free to use

ZipRecruiter is a job board and recruiting service that allows you to post positions and discover suitable people online. It also has a wage comparison tool that uses compensation data from job postings on its site as well as data from third-party sources (like ADP). Its salary study findings are simple to comprehend, and it includes a brief but useful summary that describes the average yearly wage and pay range for the job chosen.

It earned an overall score of 3.91 out of 5 in our evaluation. Its User-Friendliness and free-to-use salary Comparative Analysis Tools contributed to its high scores. However, ZipRecruiter’s lack of data filters and downloadable salary research reports prevented it from scoring higher on this list.

Pricing for ZipRecruiter

The wage research tool on ZipRecruiter is free to use. You must contact ZipRecruiter for pricing on its paid options, which include one-click job posts, resume bank access, and unlimited applicant applications. Depending on the kind of plan chosen, its prices start at $16 per job post daily or $299 each month, according to the offer we obtained.

Features of ZipRecruiter

• You obtain a vast database of pay information since ZipRecruiter collects most of its compensation data from open positions that companies and recruiters publish on its site (with over 7.5 million jobs submitted daily). It also provides wage information for 35,000 job titles, which is much more than Payscale’s 15,000 job titles. It also incorporates compensation data from third-party sources, such as ADP.
• Salary research summary: ZipRecruiter is the only provider on this list that shows details of its salary research both in graph and report format. These are helpful in translating the numbers into information you can use when checking a position’s salary competitiveness and planning what pay rate to add to offer letters. Other salary Comparative Analysis Tools, like Salary.com, may offer similar reports but you have to pay extra.
• ZipRecruiter has flexible salary view options that let you easily display the position’s hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly pay data. It may not have multiple data filters like Payscale, Salary.com, and the BLS, but it does have flexible salary view options that let you easily display the position’s hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly pay data. A “table view” of the salary range and average pay for several pay periods is also available.

Drawbacks of ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter’s online salary Comparative Analysis Tools may include a brief summary report that’s easy to understand, but you can’t download it or its bar graphs that show the average salary and pay ranges. Having data filters to view salary data based on various factors (like education level and years of work experience) would have been helpful as well. Plus, it doesn’t provide information about bonus payments and benefits, including top competitor companies.

Read the ZipRecruiter Review in its Entirety

Salary.com is the best place to go if you’re looking for a unique way to see compensation data.

Salary.com

3.78 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• Salary data from employers, including 800 million data points
• Provides a variety of survey and compensation management services.
• Multiple data filters are available, including one-of-a-kind options for sorting data by performance, reporting lines, and the number of direct reports.

What Isn’t There

• Some goods are pricey; they might be prohibitively expensive for small enterprises, particularly if many instruments are purchased.
• It might be difficult to navigate through all of the company’s products and services.
• Several of its reporting features seem to be outdated.
• The results of the online salary calculator are not available for download.

Pricing on Salary.com

• Free salary calculator online
• $29.95–$79.95 for a personal pay report (for workers).
• Reports on job appraisal and cost range from $245 to $2573 for one to 15 report credits.
• Professional Salary Wizard (salary data subscription) costs $499 per month for one data scope and $399 for each additional data scope.
• Surveys for particular sectors and data sets are available for a fee of $995–$4,975 per report.
• CompAnalyst (compensation software): Priced on a case-by-case basis

Salary.com, which was launched in 1999, is one of the earliest providers of salary information on the internet. It provides a broad variety of pay management and salary survey tools, as well as 100% employer-reported survey data obtained from data collectors. The data is updated regularly, and several unique filters, such as pay views depending on performance and management level, aren’t accessible on other sites.

With a score of 3.78 out of 5, Salary.com comes in fourth place, following closely behind the BLS. Its robust Comparative Analysis Tools with unique filters, multiple salary report options, and User-Friendliness earned this provider high marks. It scored the lowest in pricing because while it has a free-to-use salary calculator, you have to pay extra if you want to download the report. Plus, many of its job pricing and salary Comparative Analysis Tools are paid solutions.

Pricing on Salary.com

Salary.com offers a number of free services, including an online salary calculator with custom filters, as well as HR metrics and benefits survey data that you can download for free. Salary.com’s paid options include a variety of goods at varying pricing points:

• CompAnalyst (compensation software): Priced on a case-by-case basis
• Professional Salary Wizard (salary data subscription)
  • For one data scope, a monthly membership is $499.
  • Add-ons: Each extra data scope costs $399 per month.
• Industry surveys and data sets range in price from $995 to $4,975 per report.
• $29.95–$79.95 for a personal pay report (for workers).
• Reports on job evaluation
  • Credit for one report: $245
  • $661 in credit for three reports
  • $1,041 in report credits
  • $1,372 in report credits
  • $1,837 for ten report credits
  • $2,573 for 15 report credits

Features of Salary.com

• With 800 million data points and compensation data covering more than 4,000 benchmark positions, Salary.com provides a massive collection of employer-reported pay and benefits information.
• Unique filters: Salary.com offers unique filters that the other salary Comparative Analysis Tools in this guide don’t have. Apart from location, education, and years of work experience data filters, you can sort salary data by work performance levels, reporting lines, and number of direct reports. The Performance filter applies standardized categories—such as “excellent,” “above expectations,” and “poor”—to each position. This would be most helpful perhaps not for determining what to offer when hiring employees but when identifying promotion potential and pay raises during annual performance reviews. On the other hand, the “Reports To” option adds the immediate manager title to filtering capabilities.
• Pay and benefits comparison data: You’ll get a full salary data range that includes averages and quartile percentages, allowing you to examine the compensation distribution for the chosen job at the 10%, median (50%), and up to 90% percentiles. Data on bonuses and perks is also available, and unlike Indeed, it displays the employer’s estimated contribution cost per benefit (such as health insurance, pension, and Social Security).
• Salary.com offers a variety of data sets and survey alternatives to match any person’s or company’s budget. It may not be as large as Payscale’s 15,000 roles or ZipRecruiter’s 35,000 job titles, but Salary.com gives employer-reported data, which is generally of better quality, so it’s a substantial, high-quality dataset. You may also pick between one-time searches and continuing searches.

Drawbacks of Salary.com

While Salary.com offers a large data base, several of its reporting capabilities seem to be outdated. It’s also a little difficult to browse due to the wide range of goods and services available. It would be preferable if everything was presented in a more straightforward manner.

Payscale is the best option for companies that want to create custom compensation scenarios.

Payscale

3.56 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• A compensation scenario builder is available.
• Survey and compensation management systems come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
• Provides products with extensive data from employees and employers.

What Isn’t There

• There isn’t any transparency in pricing.
• It might be tough to grasp the differences between Payscale’s products.
• The findings of “Price a Job” are not available.

Pricing on a sliding scale

• Free “Price a Job” tool
• Solutions and services for compensation management and pay surveys are available on a custom basis.

Payscale is an easy-to-use tool that includes robust employee- and employer-reported data. Like Salary.com, it has a wide range of compensation management and survey tools, although Payscale lets you build your own compensation scenarios in case you need to create an organization unit with new positions or a completely new business. This allows you to get a holistic idea of your staffing costs, more so than the other salary Comparative Analysis Tools in this guide. Plus, the reports are simple and easy to understand, but the plethora of job titles can make it difficult to get the right title comparison.

It scored 3.56 out of 5 in our evaluation, with perfect marks in Comparative Analysis Tools and ratings of 3 and up in reporting capabilities and User-Friendliness. However, the non-transparent pricing of its paid salary survey solutions and services contributed to its low scores.

• Report on Job Pricing
• Report on Job Specifics

Payscale’s “Price a Job” Report is available for free (Source: Payscale)

Payscale’s Report on Job Specifics show popular skills for the selected position, including the applicable pay for each skill. (Source: Payscale)

Pricing on a sliding scale

While you may use their “Price a Job” tool for free, if you want price information on Payscale’s premium products like Insight Labs, Benchmark, Payfactors, MarketPay, and compensation surveys, you must contact the company.

Features of the Payscale

• Robust dataset: Payscale has a comprehensive database with 65 million salary profiles, 15,000 job titles, 3,000 skill types, and 6,000 industries—larger than any of the salary Comparative Analysis Tools we reviewed. And depending on the Payscale product that you get, you are granted access to either employee- or employer-reported salary data.
• While it lacks the performance and management level criteria seen on Salary.com, you may sort data by job title, work experience, area, and industry. It also displays job satisfaction scores, basic perks and bonuses, salary-influencing skills, and a gender % split for the chosen position.
• Payscale offers a comprehensive solution suite for developing and maintaining your company’s compensation package and initiatives. It offers a cloud-based pay administration software and an online job description manager to let you maintain and generate position descriptions, in addition to wage research tools. When completing pay comparisons and surveys, this is crucial since it will help you locate excellent matches for your desired positions.
• Compensation scenario builder: Its Benchmark product includes the ability to design compensation scenarios to aid in the analysis of market data and pay patterns. This makes business and organizational planning a little simpler since it allows you to obtain a comprehensive perspective of compensation expenses in case you want to start a new firm or expand your current structure by adding employees.

Drawbacks of the Payscale

Payscale’s products—which include Benchmark, MarketPay, Insight Labs, and other compensation datasets—can be tough to grasp, much like Salary.com’s. All of these look to be market comparison items. Furthermore, with 15,000 job titles in the database, matching position names to your unique duties might be difficult.

Salary on LinkedIn: Best for LinkedIn Recruiters & Users

Salary on LinkedIn

3.54 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE

What We Enjoy

• It’s easy to use
• Free if you give your payment information (LinkedIn, in turn, protects the privacy of members who provided salary data)
• Shows the highest-paying firms and locations for a certain job.

What Isn’t There

• Workers submit their salaries; certain roles may contain little information, particularly if just a few employees contribute pay information.
• Data filters are limited.
• Benefits information isn’t available.
• The salary comparison result isn’t available for download.

Salary on LinkedIn Pricing

• Members who aren’t premium: If you provide your wage information to LinkedIn, it is free.
• $59.99 per month for a premium membership (for workers).
• $139.99 per month for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite (for companies and recruiters).

Salary on LinkedIn provides salary insights for your selected position—enabling you to better understand factors that may impact pay. Unlike the other providers in this guide, its data is primarily from information anonymously provided by its employee members. However, it’s great for recruiters who are using LinkedIn to find qualified candidates since they don’t have to switch tools when checking prevailing market rates for positions. Plus, its salary comparison tool is It’s easy to use and understand.

In our evaluation, Salary on LinkedIn earned an overall rating of 3.54 out of 5. Its free and simple-to-use tools that show base salary details based on education level, company size, and other data points contributed to its high scores. However, its lack of downloadable salary comparison reports prevented it from ranking higher on our list.

Salary on LinkedIn’s pay comparison report (Source: Salary on LinkedIn)

Salary on LinkedIn Pricing

Salary on LinkedIn is free when you submit your own pay data as an employee. Those on a Premium subscription ($59.99 per month) can access Salary on LinkedIn without having to provide their salary details online. Employers and recruiters who are on a LinkedIn Recruiter Lite plan ($139.99 per month) can also use its salary research tools.

Salary on LinkedIn Features

• Robust salary data: Aside from a pay range, Salary on LinkedIn shows the base salaries on a per category basis. These categories include business size, industry, education, field of study, location, and top paying companies. While it indicates the estimated base salary with additional compensation (like bonuses), details about basic benefits are not included.
• Data filters: Salary on LinkedIn lets you filter pay data by industry and years of work experience. It doesn’t have the robust selection of filters that Payscale, Salary.com, and the BLS offer.
• Competitor analysis: Similar to Indeed, you have access to organizations that provide comparable pay for the job you’re researching.

Salary on LinkedIn Drawbacks

Because Salary on LinkedIn relies on employee-reported data, it’s potentially subject to inaccurate reporting by those who just want access to its salary Comparative Analysis Tools. It would be better if its pay information is supplemented with employer-reported data or salary details from job postings on its site. Also, it’s good for one-off analysis, but not for a lot of positions or tracking salary trends over time.

Tips to Using Salary Comparative Analysis Tools

Salary research is an important step in developing your company’s pay plan. It ensures that you’re paying your staff market rates, allowing you to recruit competent applicants and boost employee retention. Here are a few things you should do regardless of the salary comparison tool you choose.

Salary ranges for every job title depend on a variety of criteria, including location, education, years of experience, and industry. An engineer in New York City, for example, will earn more than an engineer in Iowa.

Furthermore, job titles vary a lot, so while collecting wage data, be sure to look at related job titles. To find data that closely fits the location you’re investigating, filter by as many factors as possible.

To find the correct balance between precise match and amount of data points, you’ll need to be cautious. The more closely a comparison profile matches your employment profile, the more useful the comparison data becomes. However, if you add limitations such as experience or geography, the size of your dataset will shrink. You won’t have a big enough data set to do a valid comparison if you reduce it too much.

Don’t get too caught up in a single figure if you’re trying to put up a competitive wage package. Calculate a compa ratio and a comparison range. The compa ratio, short for comparison ratio, compares the compensation you pay your workers to the market midpoint for comparable roles at other organizations. Decide where you want to be on the scale to be competitive, taking into account your employer brand and any perks and incentive payments you provide to your workers.

How We Chose the Best Salary Comparative Analysis Tools

We looked at several salary Comparative Analysis Tools, comparing each solution’s data sources and the types of pay information supplied. We also considered other features like downloadable reports, the amount of data available, and User-Friendliness. And while most have free salary research tools, we checked whether it offers a paid version that’s affordably priced.

For a more complete overview of our assessment criteria, go through the tabs below.

25% of the overall score

Salary Comparative Analysis Tools that are free to use received the highest points. For providers with paid salary research products, we looked for transparent pricing and plan options that cost $50 or less a month. Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and the BLS did very well in this criteria given its completely free-to-use tools. The BLS also offers free-to-download salary reports—ZipRecruiter and Indeed don’t have this.

20% of the overall score

Reports on salary comparisons should be accessible and simple to comprehend. Salary.com and Payscale tied for first place in this category with a 3.88 out of 5 rating.

15% of the overall score

We gave higher points to tools that have intuitive interfaces and considered whether or not users will need to spend a lot of time learning how to navigate through their features. We also checked if the tools have a mobile-friendly platform and offer help options such as online manuals, video tutorials, and live support. Among the six providers that made our list, only Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Salary on LinkedIn received scores of 4 and up in this criterion.

*Percentages based on total score

Conclusion

Regardless of your company size and the type of business you have, you should be using salary Comparative Analysis Tools to determine whether or not your salary package is on par with the market. Having access to up-to-date salary data also helps you create compensation strategies for attracting new hires and retaining current employees. Some even provide insights on HR best practices such as when hiring qualified candidates, onboarding new hires, and more.

We found that the Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers the best value for money. It’s free to use with a rich data set that comes from nationwide surveys run by the government. The salary ranges for positions, multiple filters, and different data points included (like salary quartiles, pay by years of work experience, and extensive industry coverage) are also super helpful. You can even download its reports and charts in various file formats—all at no cost.

Start using the BLS’s pay research tools right now.

Visit Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The salary comparison site is a tool that helps you find the best possible job for your skill set. The top 6 salary comparison tools are: Glassdoor, PayScale, Salary.com, Payscale.com, SalaryExpert and Job Monkey.

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