How to compare salary data

A useful salary figure needs a source, a date, a location and a clear definition. Use this checklist before comparing a guide, a job posting and an offer.

Match the occupation. A broad occupational category can include several job titles and qualification levels. Treat it as context if it does not match the exact role.
Record the reference date. A page reviewed this year may report wages measured in an earlier year. Preserve the wage period when citing a figure.
Keep the geography and currency. A national median is not a city-specific offer. Compare local evidence in the same currency.
Distinguish median, mean and percentiles. The median splits the distribution in half. The 10th and 90th percentiles describe its spread; they do not label junior and senior workers.
Compare the same pay period and hours. Converting annual pay to hourly pay requires stated paid hours. Do not silently assume every position has the same work schedule.
Separate wages from total compensation. Ask about overtime, commissions, bonuses, benefits, equity and leave. A wage survey and an employer’s total-compensation figure may measure different things.
Separate employment from business income. Fees, turnover and gross receipts do not equal profit or take-home pay.

A comparison you can reproduce

For each source, record: occupation, geography, currency, wage period, statistic, amount, hours, compensation definition, URL and date checked. If any field is missing, mark it unknown. Compare only like-for-like entries and explain any proxy you use.

Work through a sample comparison

Suppose one hypothetical posting lists $30 per hour for 30 paid hours a week and another lists $60,000 per year. Assuming 52 paid weeks, the first amount annualizes to $46,800. That calculation does not establish which offer is better: you still need the second role’s working hours, each role’s paid leave, and which benefits or variable payments are included. Record the assumptions beside the calculation.

If one source reports base pay and another includes a possible bonus, keep those figures in separate columns. Mark an undisclosed bonus as unknown rather than zero. These illustrative amounts are not salary estimates for any occupation or location.

How the reviewed guides use evidence

The source panels on our reviewed salary guides identify the occupation and data period. We remove unsupported experience or city ranges instead of deriving them from national percentiles. Other guides in the library still require source review; a generated range should not be treated as an independently verified market estimate.

Source definitions: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics questions and answers.