A consultant's secrets for finding elusive salary data. (Tips for Researching Compensation)

Your company adds a unique new job title, and you have no idea what kind of compensation the position demands. A highly qualified employee gives notice after accepting the exact same position at another company that offers 20 percent more in salary. For these and other reasons, companies rely on salary survey data to remain competitive in hiring and retaining qualified workers.

Finding salary survey data on an important specialty or several different jobs can prove difficult at times. When this happens, you may call friends to ask what their companies are paying for the job and find out what survey sources they use. But if that fails to turn up the desired data, you might have to research salary survey sources on your own. The research begins The first place consultants look for data is in a bibliography of salary survey sources. Bibliographies are available for …