Salary.com provides HR-reported compensation data across 225 industries and 22 countries. This guide walks through how to manually look up market data for a role using Salary.com.
Step 1: Navigate to Salary.com
In the left nav, click Salary.com under the Benchmarking section.
Step 2a: Search for a job title
Type your job title into the Search for a job title field. As you type, an autocomplete dropdown will suggest matching titles. Select the best match and then click search.
Step 2b: Search by job description
If you're not sure which job title to search for, you can paste a full job description instead and let Comprehensive find matching titles for you.
Below the job title search bar, click the "search by job description" link. This opens a modal where you can:
Paste the full job description into the text field (minimum 10 characters)
Click Find matches
Comprehensive will analyze the description and return a list of matching Salary.com job titles, each with a brief summaryIf a match has multiple levels available, expand the "X other levels available" section to see them
Click Use this title on the best match
This will populate the job title search and load the corresponding market data
Step 3: Apply filters
Once a job title is selected, the filter sidebar on the left becomes available. Salary.com offers these filters:
Location
Country - defaults to USA; searchable dropdown with all available countries
State - appears after selecting a country (for USA)
City - autocomplete field for specific metro areas
Industry
Filter by NAICS code to narrow results to a specific industry
Company size - choose one:
Employee count - ranges from "0-25" up to "50,001-100,000"
Revenue - ranges from "$0-$5M" up to "$50B-$200B"
Years of experience
Options: 0-2, 2-4, 4-7, 7-10, 10+
Click Apply to update the results with your selected filters.
💡 A note on filters: Each additional filter narrows the sample size. If your results already show a modest number of data points, consider being selective about which filters you apply. A larger sample will give you more statistically reliable percentiles.
Step 4: Read the market data
Results are displayed in a card layout with two sections:
Avg salary (left side) - shows the average salary prominently, along with a percentile bar displaying values at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles.
Additional pay (right side) - shows other pay components at the 50th percentile, which may include Base Salary, Bonus Target, Total Cash, Long-term Incentive, and Equity.
Below the pay data, you'll also see relevant job details like education requirements, experience range, and job description when available.
You can switch the currency using the dropdown in the top right (USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD, and others).
Step 5: Explore similar titles
Below the results, a People also searched section suggests related job titles. If your initial search returned a weak match, try clicking one of these suggestions to find a better fit.
Tips for accurate benchmarking
Pay attention to match ratings. An "Exact match" gives you the most reliable data. If you see "Weak match," try simplifying or adjusting your job title
Use location filters strategically. Compensation varies significantly by geography - always set your country and ideally state/city to get locally relevant data
Cross-reference your results against similar roles to sanity-check the match