Base salary answers “what does this role pay.” Incentive compensation answers a different question: “what does this person get paid for doing well.” The two work together, but they’re designed to do different jobs, and mixing them up in plan design is one of the most common mistakes comp teams make. This guide covers what […]

“Is my raise normal?” is one of the most common questions employees ask, and one comp teams get asked just as often when setting merit budgets. The honest answer depends on a few things: whether you’re looking at an annual merit raise, a promotion, or a cost-of-living adjustment, since these numbers are not the same […]

Cash is easy to understand. You see the number, it hits your account, done. Equity compensation is different. It shows up in an offer letter as a number of shares or a percentage, and for a lot of employees, especially at their first startup, it’s genuinely unclear what that number actually means, or whether it’s […]

Pay equity used to be a once-in-a-while HR initiative, something you ran when a lawsuit made the news or a board member asked about it. That’s changed. With pay transparency laws expanding across states, and employees more willing than ever to compare notes on pay, a pay equity analysis has become a standard part of […]

Most HR teams start managing compensation in spreadsheets. It works, until it doesn’t. A single spreadsheet turns into a dozen versions floating between HR, finance, and hiring managers. Formulas break. Someone accidentally overwrites last quarter’s merit numbers. By the time a company has more than a hundred employees, tracking pay in spreadsheets isn’t just inefficient, […]

Pay decisions carry more scrutiny than they used to. Boards ask about pay equity. Candidates negotiate with offer data pulled from three other companies. Employees compare notes on Glassdoor and Blind before their first day. In that environment, guessing at competitive pay is not a viable strategy. Compensation benchmarking is how HR leaders replace guesswork […]