Are Your Salary Offerings Competitive?

Is the salary you’re offering to candidates competitive enough?

You’ve spent a considerable amount of time sourcing candidates and have narrowed down your selection to a promising individual. Having gotten this far, it’d be a shame to lose an excellent candidate to simple logistics such as unmet salary expectations.

This is why ensuring salary offers are competitive is critical to attracting and retaining top talent. The most effective way to assess competitiveness is through salary benchmarking, which is comparing your salary offer with market rates, local cost of living, and competitor compensation data.

Why Salary Competitiveness Matters

One of the first things a candidate considers in a job offer is the salary. If it doesn’t meet their expectations based on their experience, skill level, location, and industry standards, they may look elsewhere or provide a suitable counteroffer. However, not being offered a fair salary from the start can reflect negatively on the hiring company, so it’s best to get this metric right from the onset.

Offering a competitive salary is essential not only to attract top talent, but it’s also a key factor in reducing turnover and maintaining a strong employer brand. Employees who feel their compensation is below market value are much more likely to leave or disengage, impacting productivity and culture.

Steps to Determine If Salary Is Competitive

Research Market Salaries

Start by investigating salary data for similar roles in your location and industry using multiple sources: government databases (e.g., Bureau of Labor Statistics), crowdsourced platforms (e.g., Payscale, Glassdoor, Indeed), and industry salary guides.

Benchmark Against Competitors

Compare your offer with competitor pay packages, adjusting for company size, role seniority, and location-specific cost of living. Use salary surveys and accessible benchmarking tools to ensure data accuracy.

Analyze Total Compensation

Consider not just salary, but the complete package—bonuses, benefits, flexibility options, and growth opportunities. Non-salary perks can significantly boost perceived competitiveness.

Conduct Job Analysis

Assess position responsibilities and requirements to set appropriate pay ranges. This clarity ensures your offer aligns with both market expectations and internal pay equity.

Review Regularly

Compensation trends evolve—re-evaluate benchmarks every 2–3 years (or sooner in fast-changing markets) to keep up with demand and talent expectations.

Practical Tools You Can Use

Tool/Source	Data Type	Best Use Case
Recruiting Research: Competitive Intelligence	Customized search for salary benchmarks based on role, location, function, and industry. Most up-to-date data compared to lists already online.	When hiring for important roles in specific locations and functions, especially C-suite and director-level positions. Bonus: you can get additional insights like benefits packages, turnover rates, and other custom fields into your research.
Bureau of Labor Statistics	US-wide salaries	Useful to get a general idea of what salary expectations are on average nationwide. All data updated on varied cadences.
Indeed Salary Insights	Employer + employee reports	Quick job title averages, local insights to have a general estimate on what is competitive.
Payscale	Crowdsourced, scenario builder	Scenario modeling to predict potential salary trends, market compensation data. While there is a free option, enterprise-level plans are more accurate, but average $27k per year.
Salary.com	Filterable compensation data	Industry-specific, customizable reports. When you just need salary data and don’t need any other insights (i.e. benefits, turnover rate, etc). Their updates are quarterly on average.
ZipRecruiter	Job posting salary analysis	Fast search for active salary ranges. The website gathers an average of active job listing offers to give a decent “ballpark” range. To see benefits you must scroll through each job description.

Factors to Consider When Setting Competitive Pay

• Location: Salaries differ widely by city and state, influenced by the local cost of living.
• Role and Experience: Senior positions and niche skills command higher market rates.
• Industry Trends: Stay attuned to salary shifts within your sector, especially in high-demand areas.
• Employee Expectations: Transparent compensation frameworks help signal fairness and boost retention.

Using Competitive Intelligence to Discover Salary Expectations in Your Field and Location

At Corporate Navigators, our recruiting research services include competitive intelligence, where we can conduct custom searches into your competitors about anything that strikes your curiosity. Salary benchmarks fluctuate constantly, so having the most up-to-date information is critical if you’re attempting to recruit a talented individual.

This is why competitive intelligence is also a powerful tool for making the best job offer possible, especially for passive candidates who aren’t in a rush to change positions. By analyzing public data, job postings, industry reports, and professional networks, you can gain insight into what employers are offering for similar roles in your area.

This information helps you stay aligned with market expectations, whether you’re setting salary ranges as an employer or negotiating your own compensation. Understanding local and industry-specific benchmarks ensures you remain competitive and attract or retain top talent effectively.

Final Checklist to Attract and Keep Top Talent

To attract and keep top talent, offering the correct salary for their experience level and role is paramount. Here is a final checklist you can consult to ensure you’re doing everything you can do set yourself up for recruiting success:

• 1. Compare your offer against at least three reputable sources.
• 2. Account for total compensation—not just base pay.
• 3. Understand local living costs and the minimum salary required for comfort.
• 4. Update your benchmarks periodically to reflect labor market changes.

Consistently applying these practices will help ensure your salary offer stands out to high-caliber candidates and supports long-term workforce retention. Would you like to partner up and discover custom, detailed information about competitors in your industry, including salary, benefits, turnover rate, reporting structure, and more? Then contact us at Corporate Navigators today.