Base Pay

When starting a business rather small or large one must establish a pay structure. A pay rate is established by conducting surveys which provides specific wage rates for specific jobs. Formal written questionnaire surveys are the most comprehensive, but telephone surveys and newspaper ads are also sources of information. Other Sources of surveys are consulting firms, professional associations and government agencies. Once your surveys are complete a job evaluation which is a systematic comparison done in order to determine the worth of one job relative to another. Group similar jobs into pay grades and price them. A pay grade is comprised of jobs of approximately equal difficulty or importance as established by job evaluation. Each grade will indicate the pay rates currently paid for jobs in each pay grade, relative to the points or rankings assigned to each job or grade by the job evaluation. It will also show the relationships between the value of the job as determined by one of the job evaluation methods and the current average pay rates for your grades.
A competency base plan is a set of related knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors associated with a major aspect of a person's job and tied to effective job performance. Competencies make up the value that workers bring to the employer. Competency-based pay is founded on the premise that when workers use their knowledge, skills and abilities on the job, they will achieve the type and level of accomplishment required for the organization to meet its strategic goals.
Traditional pay plan methods of compensation involve set pay levels (wage or salary) with regular increases. Increases can be given for a variety of reasons, but are typically given for promotions, merit increases, or cost of living increases. In the traditional program, the employee who wants more compensation, or the supervisor who wants to pay his/her employee more, has to figure out a way to re-describe the job to be at a