Sources of Salary Market Data
The University has selected a number of reliable, well established salary survey’s to provide salary market data reflecting the markets in which we recruit and compete for professional and scientific talent. This includes:
- Different geographical markets (regional vs. national),
- Different business sectors (health care, industry), and
- Internal market comparisons (SEIU/AFSCME).
In order to get reliable information on a majority of University positions, a number of survey sources were identified. Whenever possible, multiple sources were used for a specific benchmark job, using data that most closely reflects our size, complexity and geographic location. A summary of the specific surveys used is provided below:
CUPA-HR/Big Ten
The Administrative Compensation Survey conducted by the College and University Personnel Association (CUPA) collects salary and demographic data for 284 selected administrative positions (typically at the level of director or above) from colleges and universities nationwide. The Mid-Level Administrative and Professional Salary Survey collects salary and demographic data for another 214 selected mid-level positions (typically below the director level). For our analysis, we focused specifically on the salary information from other Big Ten Universities within each survey.
Mercer Benchmark
The Mercer Benchmark survey is one of the most comprehensive salary surveys available to employers. It is recognized by compensation professionals as the premier survey to determine salary levels for employees. This survey has 13 modules that provide salary information for over 1000 positions. This survey allows us to sort salary information by industry, geographic area, budget and number of employees. This survey covers 1.6+ million employees and over 2000+ organizations.
Educomp
This nationwide survey collects compensation data for over 500 professional, managerial and director-level staff positions specific to higher-education institutions. This survey allows us to specifically get salary information for positions based upon institution size, by budget, institution type, and geographic area.
Salary.com
This is an online service that allows users to market price jobs by industry, geography, and organization size. This service is not the same as Salary.com that is available to the public on the internet. The service that we are using is a special professional-grade compensation database that has been compiled using specialized salary surveys.
Towers Watson Professional Administrative Services
The Professional Administrative Services survey provides salary information for over 130 non-management and administrative positions, with data for most reported at multiple levels of responsibility and experience. Analysis is summarized by organization size and geographic area.
Towers Watson Professional Specialized Services
Survey provide information for over 130 non-management, technical positions with data for most reported at multiple levels of responsibility and experience. Analysis is summarized by organization size and geographic area.
Towers Watson Health Care Management & Executive
Survey provides salary information for more than 140 health care executive and management classifications. The data is broken out by For-Profit, Not-For-Profit and Government health care institutions.
Major University Presenters (MUPS)
This survey provides salary information for Arts, Culture and Entertainment job classifications and comes from a consortium of 21 United States university presenting organizations. The consortium was formed in 2002 to share best practices and information, organize joint projects, provide a format for peer to peer contact and advocate for the role of performing arts presenters in major research universities.
Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
MGMA-ACMPE is the premier membership association for professional administrators and leaders of medical group practices. MGMA-ACMPE serves 22,500 members who lead 13,600 organizations nationwide in which some 280,000 physicians provide more than 40 percent of the healthcare services delivered in the United States. This organization provides administrative and management survey data by specialty.
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
This survey collects information about compensation for administrative positions in basic and clinical science departments, as well as interdisciplinary centers, which include cancer centers and clinical and translational science award programs. Ninety-one medical schools reported compensation data for 1,816 administrators. Information is separated by Public and Private medical schools.
Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH)
This survey contains data from 199 health care organizations covering 275 positions. Almost all professional level medical center positions are surveyed. The survey has multiple modules with salary information for both multiple hospital systems and single facilities. Analysis is summarized by organization size and geographic area.
Big Ten Athletics Survey
The Big Ten Athletics Departments participate in an annual survey of over 50 professional and administrative level Athletic Department classifications, plus coaches.
Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) analyzes salary data for all professional staff working in 125 ARL member libraries covering 1,037 professional staff in the 115 university ARL libraries and for 3,709 professional staff in the 10 non-university ARL libraries.
Page Last Updated April 2012