Patent ID: 8478618

Claim:
A method of predicting compensation data, the method comprising: obtaining compensation data, associated with a job category, with at least one datum being associated with each of a plurality of characteristics associated with the job category; determining values of factors, associated with respective ones of the characteristics, and a base value that when used as operands of a function yield estimates of the obtained data such that relationships between the estimates and corresponding obtained compensation data satisfy at least one criterion; using a portion of the values of factors and the base value by a computer to automatically obtain estimates of compensation data; deriving reference data using the obtained compensation data and the values of factors; aggregating the reference data to determine the base value; comparing estimated compensation data with obtained compensation data of the same job and having the same associated characteristics as the estimated compensation data; adjusting the values of the factors as appropriate depending upon results of comparing the estimated and obtained compensation data; and repeating the deriving, aggregating, using, comparing, and adjusting until comparing the estimated and obtained compensation data satisfy the at least one criterion.