Conduct compensation benchmarking analysis to position salaries against market data. Use this skill when the user needs to assess pay competitiveness, build salary bands, or analyze pay equity — even if they say 'are we paying market rate', 'salary benchmarking', or 'compensation analysis'.
Compensation benchmarking compares internal pay levels against external market data to assess competitiveness. Uses compa-ratio (actual pay / market midpoint) and percentile positioning. Informs salary band design, pay adjustments, and equity analysis.
Trigger conditions:
When NOT to use:
IRON LAW: Benchmarking Is Only Valid With COMPARABLE Jobs
Matching by job TITLE alone is unreliable — "Senior Engineer" means
vastly different things at different companies. Match by: job content
(duties, scope), level (IC vs manager, experience band), industry,
geography, and company size. Poor job matching produces misleading
market rates.
Collect: internal compensation data (base, bonus, equity), market survey data (P25, P50, P75 by role), job matching between internal roles and survey benchmarks. Gate: Jobs properly matched, survey data current (< 18 months).
Check: compa-ratios cluster around 0.85-1.15 (normal range). Flag outliers (< 0.80 underpaid, > 1.20 overpaid). Test demographic equity. Gate: Distribution reasonable, equity analysis completed.
Return benchmarking results with band recommendations.
{
"summary": {"avg_compa_ratio": 0.97, "below_band_pct": 12, "above_band_pct": 8},
"by_role": [{"role": "Software Engineer", "market_p50": 1800000, "avg_actual": 1750000, "compa_ratio": 0.97}],
"equity_flags": [{"dimension": "gender", "gap_pct": 3.2, "statistically_significant": true}],
"metadata": {"employees": 500, "survey_source": "Mercer", "survey_date": "2025-H2"}
}
Input: 50 engineers, market P50=NT$1.8M, actual range NT$1.5M-2.1M Expected: Avg compa-ratio ~0.97, some below-band employees flagged for adjustment.
| Input | Expected | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hot market (tech boom) | Market data rapidly outdated | Apply higher aging factor |
| Remote work mixed | Location-adjusted bands needed | SF vs Taipei market rates differ 2-3x |
| Small company, no survey match | Use broader industry proxies | Imperfect but better than nothing |
references/band-design.mdreferences/pay-equity.md