Wage Methodology
There are several components to SmartReq’s wage data.
Wage inflation is determined by how advertised wages in the last three months compared to advertised wages from the same persiodlast year.
- Greater than 15%= very high wage inflation
- Greater than 7.5% = high wage inflation
- Greater than 2.5 = mild wage inflation
- Between -2.5% - 2.5% = no wage inflation
- Less than -2.5% = wage deflation
Advertised Wage:
Advertised wage is the salary information provided by a company or entity in its online postings for a particular position.
If the advertised wage is present in the posting, we extract the salary information from the job posting as advertised. However, only 15-20% of all postings have salary information available. The percentage of postings containing salary information varies depending on the occupation, industry, and job title.
This data is updated daily.
Where does our remote salary data come from?
Remote salary is the advertised wage for remote jobs.This number comes from advertised salary data but is exclusive to job postings for remote talent. Note that not all jobs will have remote postings.
This data is updated daily.
How is median salary calculated?
Median salary is the wage made by workers in the middle of your occupation group. The backbone for SmartReq’s occupational median salary data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) dataset. This set is updated annually, and provides percentile earnings data for occupations at the MSA [Metropolitan Statistical Area] level throughout the United States.
The OES dataset is updated annually in May
How is wage inflation calculated?
To determine the current status of wage inflation for a job, we compare the advertised hourly wages for the current 30-day period to advertised wages for the previous 30-day period. We then compare that result to the other markets in the cohort.
We have taken this route because inflation can be expressed as an index (change based on a fixed point in time) or an actual change in level. For now, change in level is the method used in SmartReq. Because only one occupation is being compared at any point in time, the variance in pay levels is tight enough that comparing the actual and not percentage or indexed change is e the clearest and most defensible method to deliver the wage inflation metric.
Our compensation model is updated monthly to take advantage of salary information from the latest quarter’s job postings.