New Form of Salary Data Available

It used to be that to prepare fully for salary negotiations, every professional had to conduct their own salary survey. But since the launch of sites like Salary.com, more and more salary information is becoming available to job seekers. Well, move over Salary.com, there are new players on the field: PayScale.com and PayScroll.com.

While Salary.com secures its data via corporate HR offices, PayScale.com is sourcing their data directly from job seekers themselves who are willing to share their salary info. The good news? If you're looking for work in a fairly common and popular occupation, PayScale is likely to be a good source of vital salary info for you. If you're looking for work in a more unusual and rare occupation, it's data probably won't be extensive enough to help you.

PayScroll, on the other hand, is an emerging site (still in Alpha testing) which is testing a new way to source salary information: by scrolling through online job postings. This is a clever idea. I've long encouraged my clients to use job boards to find salary data, but there's no doubt that's a lot of work. If PayScroll is successful in delivering the goods, this idea could offer job seekers additional leverage in the salary negotiations war.

Stay tuned!