Drill Down Deeper

If you are creating compensation plans in the coming months, make sure you use the right data, advises Katie Bardaro, PayScale's lead economist. Looking at the wider economy, you hear news of sluggish hiring and persistent unemployment. If you just used that information, you could assume that the competition for talent is relatively light. For some companies that may be the case, but to make the best compensation decisions for you company, you need to drill deeper, according to Bardaro. The PayScale Index, which was recently updated, provides detailed data on the U.S. salary growth rate across the entire economy, but also at the metro, industry and job category level. Below are some of the details it reveals.

Many Employees Are Discouraged

A recent research study shows employees believe that promotion is more a matter of personal connection than a reward for performance. The study found that 44 percent of respondents believe that relationships drive promotion. Only 39 percent cited performance as the most significant factor for career advancement.

How Pay Grades Protect and Serve Your Business

By Tripp Ritter, PayScale.com

Once a company reaches about 100 employees or more, they have grown to a size where it may be time to move beyond pricing jobs on an ad-hoc basis. The management of salaries, when each individual job has its own pay range, becomes increasingly challenging. Putting pay grades in place eases the management burden and provides additional benefits, including protection against pay equity claims, defining career paths for employees and protecting the company from overly aggressive hiring practices. We discussed this tricky transition with PayScale Compensation Consultant , Melissa Quade, CCP and below you can read her advice.

Connecting with People and Sharing Our Knowledge

By Tim Low, VP of Marketing, PayScale.com

I'd like to share a few observations from a SHRM national first timer (I am a software guy, and have never been to a SHRM conference before).

Transportation and IT Climb Fastest In Q2

Doing any hiring in the coming weeks or months? Making salary decisions will be easier if you have up to the minute information on the trajectory of wage growth in your industry. As we reported last week in "Wages Are Up...Everywhere," the Q2 2012 results from The PayScale Index, reveal that for the first time since 2009, wages are up in every industry and job category tracked by the Index.

Can you guess whether Seattle or San Francisco has had the best wage growth over the last six years? Or, how much Detroit's recent economic gains have improved wage levels there? PayScale's Q2 2012 results for The PayScale Index reveal the best and worst cities for wage growth since 2006.

We've witnessed the struggles, the ups and the downs, as wages from various industries and job families have tried to recover from the recession. Employers have wondered if it is time to hand out raises and how big to make them. Well, the signs of struggle have been decreasing in the last couple of years and in Q2 2012, they nearly disappeared altogether.

Paycheck Fairness Act Poll Results Just In

A few weeks ago, in "Poll: Your Opinion on the Paycheck Fairness Act," we asked readers to tell us what they thought about the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act. A little over 100 of you let us know. As the results below show, about half of those who answered agree with Mykkah Herner, who expressed his reluctant opposition in "The Paycheck Fairness Act is The Wrong Fix." Only a third of respondents support it.

How to Better Connect Finance and HR

Finance and HR now have a powerful, data-rich tool with which  to cooperatively manage compensation strategy and its impact on the business. PayScale's Insight product team recently released an executive summary reporting tool that succinctly provides the information finance and HR leaders need to ensure that the company's compensation strategy yields its promised returns. The report gives finance and human resources a dashboard that lets both know when the compensation engine is humming, and also provides warnings of potential issues.