Keeping top-notch employees today is particularly challenging, given the stock option craze and base salaries seeming to be going out of sight. There are several ways to find out what the market is paying for employees. Some of the methods are salary surveys, general networking and newspaper advertisements. These techniques are especially useful for the business owner who probably does not have a lot of time to devote to learning about this subject, nor can they afford to hire one of the nationally known compensation consulting firms. Salary surveys can be a good place to start.
Many industry associations conduct surveys for their members.
The Internet is filled with surveys on salaries paid to all types of employees. Sometimes, a local chamber of commerce or business association can provide some basic data as well. Not all surveys provide reliable information, however. At small companies, many people wear so many different hats, it is hard to use someone's title as an accurate description of what they really do, hence, salary surveys reporting this information can be suspect. When assessing the reliability of a survey, consider who conducted the survey and how the information was validated.