How to Research Salary Benchmarks Before a Review

Negotiating salary is hard. Leveraging data makes it so much easier. Here are 6 unique ways to research salaries for your target role: First, a quick note on how to use this date. Salary will likely come up in your first interview. Do this research before. Aim to gather as much data on the salary range for the role as possible. Then aim for the largest "reasonable" jump you can make (usually the ~70% mark of the range). 1. Find Salaries In States That Require It Most companies won't post a salary range. But several states have passed laws that requires them to. So search for your target job on LinkedIn and filter for those states. Then adjust the salary range for the cost of living in your area. Now you have more accurate salary data! 2. H1BData Info When companies sponsor an employee's visa, they're required to disclose the job title and salary. H1BData[.]info lets you search through all of that data. Since these are actual salaries from real jobs, this is some of the most accurate data you can get. 3. Levels FYI Want to work in tech? Levels[.]fyi doesn't just have salary information. They also have info on internal "levels" that MAANG and F500 companies use to determine salary. Use this info to determine if the offer you get is a good one for your level. 4. Glassdoor Glassdoor gives you salary data in different cuts. You can view general data for your city, job title, and years of experience. Or you can find user-submitted salary info for specific job titles at specific companies. 5. Blind Blind has a salary comparison tool, but don't use it. Instead, search the forums for: [Company] + [Job Title] + Salary Look through the convos of people anonymously sharing salary info. It's a great way to go beyond base to understand bonuses, equity, and more. 6. Look At The Competition Most job seekers only look at this data for their target company. Don't stop there. Find out what their competition is paying for similar roles. Then use that data to your advantage in the conversation.

Understanding salary doesn't have to be the mystical voodoo that it is sometimes made out to be. Employers use data analysis reports to establish salary ranges (nope, they really don't just make it up). You can use the same data analysis reports to understand your reasonable compensation expectations and negotiations (it's like showing up the car dealership with the KBB print out in hand). One of my favorites is the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM....the professional organization of Human Resources) Compensation Data Center at https://lnkd.in/gPGbSx63 This gives you the DATA on more than 15,000 roles across 225 industries with geographic specific variation that breaks down wages, benefits, bonuses, and total cash comp. This site gives YOU the power to pull the same compensation analysis reports that employers use to set wage scales, and while it is a fee for service, you might just find that getting your salary negotiation right with actual industry salary DATA is worth the investment. This is NOT crowd sourced or self reported salary data, it is compiled from reputable industry data, and the sample below is a sample report extract publicly available on the website (to ensure I'm not sharing copywrite information). (NOTE: I am not employed by SHRM, nor do I receive any money or benefit of any kind for recommending this site, it's just me sharing useful information that HR pros use to simplify the salary question for you)

How a Public Company’s Proxy Statement Helped A GC I advise to Negotiate a 30% Higher Salary Recently, I was helping prepare a GC for a big salary negotiation. She had just received an offer from a public company, and while it was solid, I knew she could push for more. But instead of relying solely on internet estimates or industry benchmarks, we turned to a goldmine of information that most job seekers overlook: the company’s proxy statement (DEF 14A). The Hidden Treasure in SEC Filings For those unfamiliar, a proxy statement is a document public companies file with the SEC, revealing detailed compensation data for top executives—including salary, bonuses, stock options, and performance incentives. It’s designed for shareholders, but it’s just as useful for job candidates. We pulled up the company’s latest proxy statement and started digging. Here’s what we found: ✅ The CEO’s base salary had increased by 12% over the past year—meaning the company was in a growth mode and willing to pay more. ✅ Executives had performance-based bonuses tied to revenue targets, suggesting that negotiation around incentives was possible. ✅ The median executive salary was disclosed, giving us a benchmark for where she should be within the organization’s pay structure. ✅ Equity compensation was a big part of executive pay, meaning she could negotiate for more stock options instead of just salary. How We Used This to Her Advantage When she walked into the negotiation, she didn’t just ask for a higher number—she anchored her request in the company’s own compensation philosophy. ➡️ She pointed out that compensation had been rising across leadership, signaling they were open to increases. ➡️ She referenced the median executive pay and explained why her experience and role placed her in the top percentile of that range. ➡️ She structured her counteroffer not just around salary but also performance-based bonuses and stock options, aligning her interests with the company’s. The Result? A 30% increase in base salary, plus additional equity. Most candidates walk into negotiations with generic market data. But when you use a company’s own financial disclosures, you shift the conversation from a personal request to a data-backed business case. So next time you're negotiating, don’t just Google salary ranges—pull up the proxy statement, understand the company's pay strategy, and leverage it to your advantage. #SalaryNegotiation #CareerGrowth #CompensationStrategy #ExecutiveCompensation #ProxyStatement #JobSearchTips #NegotiationSkills #CareerDevelopment #FinancialLiteracy #KnowYourWorth

As long as we make salary conversation a taboo, the pay gap will continue to exist. Here are 5 sources I used to land a $200k+ offer at Amazon and that helps my clients consistently negotiate a $20k - $50k offer increase. 1. JOB BOARDS WITH AGGREGATE PAY DATA 3 trusted and comprehensive websites to review salary data for non-tech companies include: - Glassdoor - Payscale - Comparably For Canadian jobs, it is important to review not just the .ca website, but also .com website, since the Canadian database is small and many companies when hiring for US roles out of Canada, will have greater salary budgets available. 2. LEVELS(dot)FYI For roles in Tech companies, there is no better site that I like than Levels(dot)fyi. I particularly like this website because you can find individual salary data by exact role level, title, and years of experience within a Tech company, especially for the largest Tech companies. This helps overcome the problem with average salary data which will always be lower than 75th percentile data and will anchor you on the lower end of salary expectation. It is also great for Tech salaries because most companies provide equity with a 4-year vesting cycle and the website provides tools for you to visualize your 4-year compensation, which is a powerful resource during offer negotiations to make sure your compensation doesn't decrease year over year. 3. PAY TRANSPARENCY LAWS For F500 companies, visit LinkedIn, and search for an equivalent role that’s open in a state where employers are required to publish salary ranges in accordance with Pay Transparency Laws. Then adjust it up or down for the cost of living in your state. If you are applying for a job with a smaller employer that does not have multiple locations across the US, you can still look for an equivalent role with companies that publish pay ranges and adjust (mostly downwards by 10-20%). Check out govdocs(dot)com/pay-transparency-laws/ to see which US States have instated Pay Transparency laws. 4. NICHE JOB BOARDS FOR PAY PARITY DATA Several niche and diversity focussed websites have started publishing pay parity data, especially websites that cater to women, underrepresented, and other marginalized communities. Two sites I recommend checking out are: - Fairygodboss - Careercontessa 5. INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS The most underutilized but powerful way to know what a job will pay is to ask people who currently have that exact job. This means connecting with people, internally if you want to stay within your company and on LinkedIn if you are seeking outside opportunities, for informal coffee chats, and asking for a salary range for their role. But really, the first step to pay equity is to be proudly open about your own salary. Agree? ---------- Found the post useful? Be sure to share it with your network. Ready to make your next career move? Book a call to learn how my 1:1 program can help you land your next $200k+ leadership role. Link is in comments.