Are you paid what you’re worth?

I touched briefly on a salary search site in an earlier post. This post I will focus on a few of those sites (thanks to a reader for forwarding one link to me). It is important to understand what you are worth based on the “going rate” in the market. There are many factors to consider: education, experience, job responsibilities, the State/City you work in and the company you work for. The sites listed below should help provide a guideline. Unfortunately, we are in a “buyer’s market” at the moment which may put some downward pressure on compensation.

Glassdoor.com – This site provides reviews of companies (written by the people who work there) in addition to salary information. You can search by industry, company and job title. In order to get information you need to give information, so you must enter your data before you can get salary data. Since last I looked, quite a bit of data has been added to this site. Definitely worth a look, but you should compare other data as well.
Salarybase.com – This site allows you to enter all of your information (anonymously) and then provides a number of measurements and comparisons. The site also provides several tabs of listings of other sites that provide similar information. While it is not as comprehensive as glassdoor.com, it is easy to use and very fast. Presumably, the data gets better as more people submit their data.
CBSalary.com – Another free salary calculator run by Careerbuilder.com, you can search nationally, by State or by City. The site also provides salary comparisons as well as salary advice. The site is a little confusing. After entering very basic information on your salary, it takes you to a page which looks like it is asking information about your education. In fact, it is trying to “sell” you on getting additional education. At the bottom of the page you can click “no thank you” and then you will be taken to the salary comparison page. Too much work in my opinion.
Salary.com – This site seem fairly easy to use. You can register on the site (or use it without registering). It offers a salary wizard as well as links to additional resources (such as job resources, relocation advise and several other resources).

Good luck in your search.