Create salary bands in minutes, not hours
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A salary band shows how a salary grows within each level, defined by a minimum, midpoint and maximum.
Salary bands may also be referred to as:
Example job family consisting of 8 levels and salary bands
Salary bands support you in making structured and equitable pay adjustments.
A salary band is a great way of giving an employee an idea of their earning potential within a level as they grow. As they pick up new responsibilities and increase their impact, they can being rewarded accordingly by moving through the salary band and being assigned a ’sub-level’ or ‘% of progress made within a level’.
Assigning someone a sub-level can provide clarity on their position within a level and motivate them to set appropriate development goals. This is particularly important for more senior roles, since employees may spend a significant amount of time within one level. Therefore it's critical they understand their standing within that level to prevent feelings of stagnation.
To determine a person’s position in a salary band we ask ourselves:
“How established are you in the role within your organisation?”
i.e. What is the employee's proficiency in a level? Are they new, established or advanced?
| New (Min) | Established (Mid) | Advanced (Max) |
|---|---|---|
| • Learning the skills and responsibilities | ||
| • New to that level or the company | • Matching the skills and responsibilities | |
| • Strong experience at that level, takes on delegation | • Exceeding in the skills and responsibilities | |
| • Excelling at that level, pushing to develop. |
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These salary band positioning descriptions are examples that align closely with the concept of low, medium, and high TRM (task-relevant maturity). You can read more about TRM here.
Remember to adapt these descriptions to match your organisation's unique culture and performance approach.
There is more reading about salary band positioning here Option 1 - Position in band aka ‘Salary range penetration’
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Salary bands help ensure that employees at the same level are being paid within the same range, which help lessen the gender pay gap.
In addition to this, by having a minimum and maximum rate for every job, and then placing employees into this range by selecting a sub-level, you can easily explain to employees why one is earning way more than the other despite having the same role and level.
Having a clear pay structure that all roles are aligned to allows for accurate financial planning for future roles and salary raises.
You can put a salary band on a job advert. I’m not going to go into why this is the right thing to do, but let my friends at Otta do the talking here.
It helps guide conversations with new hires by showing them their potential starting point within the band, typically between the minimum and midpoint. For internal moves or transfers, the bands provide guardrails while allowing flexibility to start higher in the range based on experience and expertise.
Job architecture aka 'common language'You need to organise your company into the following elements. This structure provides a foundation for building your salary bands and ensures you're comparing equivalent roles when mapping back to the market.