Assessor Series FAQ #6

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Frequently Asked Questions

QUESTION:  What salary surveys are used by ERI?  Is there a way to find out which surveys are providing the data for a specific position in a specific geographic location?

ERI collects available salary survey data for jobs and areas; evaluates each survey for validity, reliability and use; and compiles mean and median salaries for positions with similar duties, responsibilities, skills and functions. Under "View" on the top bar of any Assessor Series product, a list of wage/salary survey titles and publishers which may be of interest to subscribers is shown. 

ERI does not necessarily endorse or recommend the surveys listed, nor are all of those shown necessarily currently published or used in ERI's analyses and structures.  "Available Survey Sources" are included for the benefit of readers who may wish to supplement their current survey libraries with data appropriate to specific applications.  Confidential survey data is not included in ERI consensus analyses unless permission is granted by the publisher.  Requests for information regarding individual surveys are referred directly to individual publishers (by active links in that View screen to the survey providers' Internet URL home pages).  

Each Assessor Survey Listing referral screen is a bit different.  The Geographic Assessor illustrates surveys specific to a state, territory or region, the Salary Assessor lists surveys where either presently or in the past this specific job was referenced.  A list of available pay surveys may also be viewed from ERI's Platform Library®.  (See Salary Surveys for instructions.)  ERI does not, however, provide our subscribers with an exact list of those surveys used in any one Assessor Series because the data and surveys utilized changes from quarter to quarter (with rotation of older and newer surveys in and out of the analysis) and because even a list that tied a particular position or area or industry to a list of surveys would not convey the weighting given by our analysts for individual position data, survey reliability, incumbents, industry weighting, etc. 

Most individual surveys report participants, but do not tie specific data to those participants.  All compensation research firms, including ERI, wish to safeguard the privacy of individual survey participants.  In general, ERI does not confirm whether a specific employer's data is included in any particular Assessor Series application analysis, that is, unless the employer has publicly released this information.  As of the October 2007 release, subscribers may now select View | Survey Participants for a list of organizations that have data represented in this Assessor Series' survey database. Survey participants are also displayed on the Base Salary Graph as light green dots over the data plots described above. If you put your cursor over a survey participant dot, then the source data will display. Participation may have been via SalariesReview's patented on-line survey, Abbott, Langer Association Surveys (old-fashion paper/pencil surveys), PAQ field job analyses, PAQ eDOT Skills Project, Occupational Assessor's cybernetic selected characteristics of occupations contribution to the latter, digitized optical character recognition reading of 850,000 US organizations' IRS public documents, digitized reading of US SEC proxies, 10-Ks, and 8-Ks, manual digitization of public UK/Euro countries' companies' annual reports, Canadian SEDAR data (under license), and/or other data licensed for use in the Assessor Series from organizations such as GuideStar, Statistics Canada, National Statistics, and others. All of these sources comply with US DOJ/FTC Antitrust Safety Zone Statements by meeting the following conditions: 1) provider participation in surveys is managed by a third-party; 2) the information provided by survey participants is data more than three months old; and 3) there are at least five providers reporting data upon which each disseminated statistic is based, no individual provider's data represents more than 25 percent on a weighted basis of that statistic, and any information disseminated is sufficiently aggregated such that it would not allow recipients to identify the prices charged or compensation paid by any particular provider (unless part of the public record).

We also provide population statistics that will help subscribers to evaluate whether an adequate population within the area for which employers are competing for talent has been surveyed.  In this regard, ERI is peerless.  We know that our combination of multiple survey data means that we are analyzing the largest populations possible, in most cases much more than 30% of the employers in a given area.  There are currently over 46 million US and Canadian employees included in ERI's Salary Assessor database.  Since we have analyzed so many sources in order to report consensus results, we expect our pay data to be more representative of market norms than any one specific published survey, particularly if it relies on a smaller sample or is out of date.

Survey population statistics may be reviewed by selecting View | Survey Population.

Confidential survey data is not included in ERI consensus analyses, unless permission is granted by the publisher.  Requests for information on individual surveys are referred directly to individual publishers.  Certain long-time Assessor Series jobs appear to be disappearing from survey reporting.  Some 1980's jobs (such as Rotogravure Press Operator) have indeed disappeared, but a more likely explanation is that “salary surveys are disappearing.”  Picture a survey operation where $80 of every $100 is for covered fixed costs while $10 exists for marketing and $10 for profit.  The US Government dealt these private surveys a terrible blow when, in 1995 and 1996, they altered their OES employment survey to include wages (for immigration prevailing rate purposes).  ERI saw an immediate cessation of many local and regional surveys (from Scottsbluff to Bellingham); eliminating 20% of a survey's subscribers eliminated the profit and sales funding.  And the 2000s introduction of “free salary” data via the Internet did not help.  Both well-intended sources like SalaryExpert.com (which reports conservative values based on the US and other government OES or OES-like surveys) or those other sites that exist to attract job search candidates (typically showing high values) have had a similar negative effect on private and local surveys.  And government regulation has perhaps taken the largest toll. 

In the US, the September 15, 1993 Federal Trade Commission's safety zone directive that “a survey must be managed by a legitimate third-party; the data provided must be more than three months old; and at least five organizations must report the data on which each statistic is based. No one data source can represent more than 25 percent of the statistic, etc.” has had a chilling effect on salary survey firms that now know they can easily be part of anti-trust litigation (frivolous suits still require a defense; defend ten cases and win them all and a small firm will still be bankrupt). 

Today, ERI Assessor Series continues polynomial curves for some jobs known to exist, but where no known 2007/2008 survey reports data (although in 1987 there were three or more surveys). Our methodology would be that ERI's SalariesReview builds in its robustness to bridge this gap; we do not believe rational firms of any size will enter the “salary survey business” any time soon.  Today, there is too much liability with no profit margin.  (Many European countries are ahead of the US in this phenomenon; private salary surveys have all but disappeared in the UK, Germany, etc.)