Salary Band Builder & Compa-Ratio Calculator

About the Salary Band Builder & Compa-Ratio Calculator

Build a salary structure — pay grades, each with a minimum, midpoint and maximum — from your own market data, and see where each person’s pay sits in it. Set the midpoint of the lowest grade and the midpoint progression from grade to grade, or type the market rates of a few anchor roles and let the page fit a line through them; then the range spread of the lowest and the highest grade and the rounding. Any grade can take a midpoint of your own.

Add your people from a spreadsheet — grade and salary, and if you have them the performance rating and sex — and the page works out each person’s compa-ratio and range penetration, flags pay below the minimum or above the maximum, proposes the year’s increases with a merit matrix scaled to your budget (holding salaries at the range maximum and paying the rest as a lump sum), and screens each grade for a gap between the compa-ratios of women and men.

The rows are read on this device and never uploaded. The free preview works on your own structure and people and shows the first rows of each table with a watermarked band chart; every row, the workbook (XLSX) and the report (PDF) need a Premium pass.

Common uses

• Growing companies setting up pay grades for the first time.
• HR and reward teams finding who is paid below the minimum or above the maximum of their grade.
• Planning the annual pay review: a merit matrix that fits the budget, with its cost known before anyone is told.
• A first look at pay by sex inside each grade before a pay transparency report or an equal-pay review.

The arithmetic

• Range spread = (maximum − minimum) ÷ minimum. With the midpoint halfway between them, minimum = midpoint ÷ (1 + spread ÷ 2) and maximum = minimum × (1 + spread). Ranges usually widen up a structure, as senior work has a longer path to mastery; the page spreads the change evenly between the lowest and the highest grade.
• Midpoint progression = the next grade’s midpoint ÷ this grade’s − 1. Structures with many narrow grades take small steps; fewer, broader grades take larger ones.
• Overlap = the share of a grade’s range that the next grade’s range also covers. Some overlap is normal; a lot means a promotion brings little pay.
• Compa-ratio = salary ÷ the grade’s midpoint (1.00 = at the midpoint). Range penetration = (salary − minimum) ÷ (maximum − minimum): 0 % at the minimum, 100 % at the maximum, below 0 % or above 100 % outside the range. Pay below the minimum is often called a green circle and pay above the maximum a red circle; the chart colours them that way.
• Anchor roles: the page fits ln(midpoint) = a + b × grade through your anchors by least squares — a line with the same percentage step between grades — and shows R² and how far each anchor sits from the line. Grades without a survey match get a midpoint from the line.

The merit matrix

The matrix gives a larger increase for a better rating and for a lower position in the range, so pay moves towards the midpoint for people who perform. The page starts from one shape — the best rating’s row 1.6, 1.4, 1.2, 1.0 and 0.5 from the first quarter of the range to above the maximum, falling evenly to nothing for the lowest rating; people without a rating get the average of the rated rows — and scales it so the whole proposal costs your budget, a percentage of the salaries in the file. Type any cell to set it yourself: the cost is then shown against the budget. With Keep salaries within the range maximum, no increase takes a salary above the maximum: the part above it is paid once as a lump sum and counts in the cost. Ratings that are numbers are read with the highest as the best; letters from A, and the usual words (Outstanding, Exceeds, Meets, Partially meets, Unsatisfactory) in that order.

The equity screen

For each grade with at least two women and two men, the page compares their mean compa-ratios: gap = (men’s − women’s) ÷ men’s. Inside a grade the work is of a similar level, so a gap points at pay within the same range. It is a screen, not an equal-pay audit: time in the grade, performance and hard-to-fill skills can explain a difference, and an equal-pay question compares the work itself — equal work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value in Great Britain (Equality Act 2010, section 66), substantially equal work under the US Equal Pay Act, the same work or work of a similar nature under India’s Code on Wages (section 3), and equal work or work of equal value under the EU pay transparency directive, which also asks employers to set pay with objective, gender-neutral criteria.

Your file

• One row per person with a header line: CSV, TSV, XLSX, XLS or ODS (the first sheet), or rows pasted from Excel or Sheets. The page finds the grade, salary, rating, sex, name and employee id columns by their headers; change any of them.
• Grades match the structure by name (G3) or by the number they end with (3, Grade 3, Band 3). Rows with a grade outside the structure are listed and left out.
• Salaries are read as payrolls write them (52,000, 52 000, 52.000,00, $52,000). Use full-time equivalent salaries on the same basis as the midpoints — annual with annual midpoints, monthly with monthly ones.
• Sex is read from F, female, woman, M, male or man; anything else is left out of the equity screen only.

Limitations

• No market data: the midpoints are yours, from the salary surveys or benchmarks you trust. For US roles, the US Salary Benchmark gives BLS reference points.
• One structure at a time, with one range per grade: no separate ranges for locations or job families (build each one in turn).
• Part-time salaries are not converted: give full-time equivalents.
• Up to 40 grades and 50,000 people; the page shows the first 300 people and the PDF the first 2,000, while the workbook lists everyone.
• Not legal or financial advice: the equity screen is a first look at pay by sex, not an equal-pay audit.

Privacy

The employee rows are read in your browser and never uploaded or stored. Only the structure settings (grades, midpoints, spreads, rounding, anchor roles) and the currency are remembered in this browser for next time.