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Where to Find Salary Information
By CareerBuilder.com
Whether you're looking to change careers or you've already been offered a new job, it's always a good idea to do your homework regarding salary information. Once you have an understanding of what a position typically pays, you can prepare for salary negotiations and make an educated decision regarding career moves.
As you do your research, keep in mind that it's important to review salary data with a grain of salt. No matter what the national statistics imply, there are a number of factors that can result in your salary differing from the numbers you find.
Remember that salary is dependent on:
Your qualifications: Your work experience, skill set and educational background (including degrees and certifications) will all factor into your salary.
Geographic location: A position in a small town will have a different salary than an identical position in a city (of course, the cost of living in each location might negate the wage disparity).
Size of company: Similarly, an otherwise identical job will pay differently at a small company versus a large company (however the additional responsibilities, freedoms and potential growth within a smaller company could make it a more attractive choice).
Industry: Again, identical jobs in different industries will not pay the same amount. For example, an administrative assistant will typically make less at a non-profit organization than at a financial institution.
Entire compensation package: Though you may be offered a salary that is less than the number you've researched, it's important to consider the entire compensation package that a company offers. Perhaps the salary is less, but the benefits, paid time off, tuition reimbursement or flexible hours make the position more valuable than it first appears.
The good news is that with the proliferation of information on the Internet it's now easier than ever to find salary information; the only trick is knowing where to look. Here's a list of resources that should help you determine the salary range for any position. Remember to cross-check your findings using more than one source, and as you do your research, keep the variables detailed above in mind.
Salary Web Sites
Compensation profiling Web sites such as CBSalary.com are an easy way to locate salary information in a specific region of the country.
Salary Web sites generally evaluate salary information on the basis of such specifics as expected job title, job location, and experience and education of the applicant. CBSalary.com offers this service free-of-charge.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a fact-finding agency that collects labor-related data on specific professions as well as national trends like unemployment rates.
The BLS' online Occupational Outlook Handbook [www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm] -- which contains a description of numerous jobs, along with their working conditions, the training/qualifications needed, the job's outlook and its average wages -- is a great jumping-off point for investigating salaries.
Trade Publications
Industries, and even specific positions within a particular industry, often have associations that publish magazines and/or books and host Web sites and surveys. These trade publications contain a wealth of helpful information -- from job descriptions to salary data.
For example:
ED2010 [www.ed2010.com], an association of young media editors, hosts a salary survey on its Web site that lists the wages of media editors from editorial assistants to editors-in-chief.
ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners is a trade magazine that publishes a biennial national salary survey for nurse practitioners.
Advertising Age is a magazine that publishes an annual salary survey for people in the fields of advertising, marketing and media.
Word-of-Mouth
Connect with other professionals in the field in order to learn more about the salary range of a position. If you don't have a personal connection to someone in the industry you're interested in, the associations and trade publications mentioned above often contain information that will help you make contact with professionals.
If you're looking to advance within your own company, co-workers can be a valuable source of information. Even if a co-worker is willing to speculate about the salary range of the position you'd like to fill, keep in mind that insight is generally of the heard-it-through-the-grapevine variety, and should not be taken as fact or repeated during salary negotiations.
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