We have all wondered if we were really being paid our fair share in salary. You must have asked your self at some point “How Much Am I Worth?” Maybe you wonder if what they pay you is the Right Salary You deserve. You need to conduct a Salary Survey to know if you are being fairly paid.
Many times employees are asked how much money they would be willing to work for in interviews. Because they are desperate to land the job, many will often ask for a very low figure. While this is normally not meant to determine the salary offer, some bad employers might use it to exploit their new staff.
After one settles into the job, they will start questioning whether they are being paid what they deserve.
In this article, I will tell you how you can know if what you are being paid is a fair salary – Conducting a Personal Salary Survey.
What is a Salary Survey?
A wage or salary survey in human resources refers to the collection and compilation of hourly and piece-rate wage figures and monthly or annual salary numbers for a given industry.
Salary surveys are conducted to establish an industry prevailing wage rate. The survey is often conducted for various job titles common in the same industry.
At a personal level, a personal salary survey may be conducted within the company or across companies in the same industry and size.
How to Conduct A Personal Salary Survey.
These guidelines will help you in conducting a small salary survey. The salary survey will determine whether you are being paid the right salary.
1. Internal Company survey.
To know if a company is paying you fairly, you need to start by looking at the company staff chart. Carefully study the chart to know people who are above you, those at the same rank and those below.
You can then try to find out how those at the same level are paid vis-a-vis what you are paid. It’s important to note that being at the same administrative level does not mean your roles are identical.
Make a critical assessment of the roles others perform and the ones you do. If they are similar take not of a significant difference in wages if they exist. I am emphasizing the word significant because the salary does not necessarily need to be identical to be fair.
2. Conduct an Online Salary Survey
There is a lot of information on the internet. Take time to do some online research on the salaries companies in your city pay for similar jobs. You can even just start your own survey by designing a simple questionnaire that you then administer to some people in your locality who do similar jobs to know what they earn!
It’s very important that you ONLY research from only people who do similar jobs in the same locality and similar industry.
It might be misleading to ask a UN driver and compare with a startup company driver.
3. Factor In Expertise and Experience.
Many times, two people can do a similar job but get paid differently because of their expertise and experience. How long someone has stayed at a job might be a factor in determining how they are paid. In some cases, the efficiency and accuracy of an office holder is greatly aided by their experience hence attracting a higher pay.
4. What other extras does one perform?
It’s possible that two people are both secretaries but one also performs the role of cashier! Do not simply depend on the job titles to conduct your salary survey. Job titles can be misleading in some companies. It’s not uncommon to find an office messenger with the title of admin assistant. If you simply take the title, you might think the admin assistant is the equivalent of assistant manager.
When conducting wage surveys, the job titles should be considered vis-a-vis the roles involved.
5. Employee availability.
When comparing wages, you must factor in the availability of the employees who perform those roles. A history teacher whether part or full time perform almost similar roles when it comes to teaching but are often paid differently. It’s most likely that the part-time teacher spends less time at the company. The full-time teacher may be paid more because they are available more times to handle other less intense but needed roles at the school.
6. Employees Origin.
I hate to say but its a fact of life. In many cases, employees who come from other towns other than where they work are considered for higher pay because of the extra cost of settling in.
