Compensation Survey Data Analysis: Southeast Region

This assignment focuses on interpreting data from a compensation survey for information systems positions in the Southeast U.S. It requires the analysis of salary data, including the number of system analyst positions, median salaries, and average bonuses. The exercise involves calculating percentages of employees receiving bonuses, understanding compa-ratios, and considering the implications of using this data for different organizations and regions, specifically for a not-for-profit organization in the Northeast. The assignment also includes a discussion on making adjustments to the data for future salary grades and the value of paying for professional survey data versus using free online resources. The student's response provides specific answers to the questions, referencing the provided survey data and external sources for context.

SALARY SURVEY EXERCISE
The use of professionally developed compensation surveys is recommended for conducting market
pricing in job evaluation. However, it is important to be able to interpret and use these surveys correctly.
This exercise requires you to interpret data from a typical, professionally developed survey. The survey
included in this exercise is for a number of information systems positions in for-profit organizations in
the Southeast U.S.
With reference to the compensation survey attached, answer the following questions:
1. What is the number of fully-competent system analyst positions included in the survey?
2. What is the median salary for a fully-competent systems analyst?
3. What is the average annual bonus for a fully-competent systems analyst?
4. How many organizations surveyed actually paid an annual bonus to entry-level applications
programmers?
5. What % of entry-level application programmers received an annual bonus?
6. For entry-level applications programmers, what is the average bonus amount as a % of salary?
7. Without going into detail, from the data provided, how does it appear that companies are doing
in keeping the compa-ratio for salary grades around 1.0? [Note: Compare weighted average
salaries to salary grade midpoints.]
8. If I were an HR manager for a not-for-profit organization in the Northeast, what concerns might I
have about using the data in this survey? What additional information about the survey would
you like to have that is not indicated in this exercise?
9. If this survey was conducted in December 2012 and published in June 2013, what adjustments
would I have to make in the data to establish salary grades for 2014, assuming I wanted to
employ a “lead the market” strategy? Be specific!
10. Why should I pay for this type of survey data when I can get similar data for free on the Internet?
Use the form on the following page to submit your responses. Each question is worth 10 points.

Salary Survey Exercise Response Form
1. No. of fully-competent system analysts 402
2. Median salary of fully-competent system analyst 51.2
3. Average annual bonus of fully-competent system analyst 3.5
4. No. of organizations that paid annual bonus to entry-level application
programmers 16.008
5. Percent of entry-level application programmers to receiving bonus 23.4
6. Avg. bonus amount (% of salary) for entry-level application programmers 3.8
7. How are companies doing with regard to keeping compa-ratios around 1.0? How do you
know? In order for companies to keep their compa-ratios around 1.0, they strive to
pay their employees salaries at the rates which are almost equal or even equivalent
to the mid-point. This I know because a 1.0 compa-ratio indicates that a worker is
receives a salary exactly equivalent to mid-point while compa-ratio figures above or
lower than 1.0 show that the salary is higher or lower than midpoint respectively,
Rudy (2019).
8. As an HR manager for a not-for-profit organization in the Northeast, what concerns
might I have about using the data in this survey? What additional information about a
survey of this type would you like to have that is not indicated? As an HR manager for
a not-for-profit organization in the North East, I would be wary to use the data in
this survey. This is because salaries for non-profits and not-for-profits vary a great
deal and so are their objectives, Cheng (2019). Furthermore, this survey was carried
out in the Southeast, while my organization is the northeast where employees’ pay
could be vastly different. The additional information which I would have required
to be included in this survey is the gender and age of the employees.
9. If this survey was conducted in December 2012 and published in June 2013, what
adjustments would I have to make in the data to establish salary grades for 2014,
assuming I wanted to employ a “lead the market” strategy? Be specific! I would make
adjustments on the level of salaries of the employees in such a way that when the
ratio of median salary to all organization median is calculated, I would be head and
shoulder above all other organizations in paying employees better.
10. Why should I pay for this type of survey data when I can get similar data for free on the
Internet? You should pay for this type of data because its specific and focuses on
your organization. The data found on the internet is mainly information of general
nature.

REFERENCE
Michelle Cheng (2019) The surprising salary comparisons for jobs in the for-profit vs nonprofit
sectors [online]. Available from: https://qz.com/work/1592258/the-surprising-salary-
comparisons-for-nonprofit-and-for-profit-jobs/ [ Accessed 13 April 2020].
Brett Rudy (2019) Defining the difference between average and median salary [online].
Available from: https://www.salary.com/blog/defining-the-difference-between-average-and-
median-salary/ [Accessed 13 April 2020].