Compensation

Set hourly rate bands and assign them to Teams and people, and see which band applies to each person.

For: People with the Manage Compensation ability (edit) or the Executive (view-only) ability (read) · Last updated

The Compensation tab in Governance holds the hourly rates your company uses to value work. A rate band is a name and a fully-loaded hourly rate in US dollars, meaning the wage plus the employer's cost of benefits and payroll taxes. Workforce Intelligence stores bands, not individual salaries.

Who can open it#

Compensation sits near the end of the Governance tabs, before Audit and Value. You see it only if you hold one of these abilities:

  • Manage compensation (manage_compensation) lets you view and edit bands and assignments.
  • Executive (view-only) (executive) lets you view them. The page says "You have view-only access." and the editing buttons are hidden.

The admin ability does not include either one, so an administrator sees the tab only when they have also been given one of these. Without access, opening the page shows "Compensation is available to people with compensation access." See What your abilities mean.

Rate bands#

The Rate bands table lists each band with its Band name, Rate, SOC code, Source note and how many Teams and people it is Assigned to. The default band is marked Default and applies to anyone without a more specific assignment.

The default band, Default rate, is an industry-neutral average. It is built from the median hourly wage across all occupations in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (national, May 2025), multiplied by 1.43 to cover employer costs of benefits and payroll taxes (from the Bureau's Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, private industry, June 2026). Treat it as a starting estimate to adjust for your company, not a precise figure for any job.

Add a custom band#

  1. Select Add custom band.
  2. Enter a Name, an Hourly rate (USD) above zero, and optionally a Source note.
  3. Select Add band, or Cancel to close the form.

Add from a template#

  1. Select Add from template. A Templates table lists broad occupation groups, each with its SOC code and Rate, calculated the same way as the default band from that group's median wage.
  2. Select Add next to a group. A group you have already added shows Added.
  3. Select Close when you are done.

Each template is a starting point for a whole occupation group, not a statement about a specific job. Edit the band afterwards if your company pays differently.

Edit or archive a band#

Select Edit on a row to change its name, rate or source note, then Save. Select Archive to remove a band; a confirmation asks "Archive" followed by the band's name. An archived band leaves the list and can no longer be assigned. A band that is still assigned to a Team or a person cannot be archived, so remove those assignments first. The default band has no Archive button.

Assignments#

The Assignments section has two tabs, Teams and People. Each row shows the Effective band (name and rate) and its Source. With edit access, each row also has an Assignment list: pick a band to assign it, or Use inherited to remove the assignment.

A person's band is the first of these that applies:

  1. Their own assignment. The Source reads Person.
  2. Their Team's assignment. The Source reads Team: followed by the Team's name. If they are on several Teams that have different bands, the lowest rate applies and the row notes "Member of teams with different bands; the lowest rate applies."
  3. The default band. The Source reads Default.

On the People tab, Search people filters the list by name. On the Teams tab, a Team with no assignment shows the default band.

Changes are recorded#

Creating, editing and archiving a band, and setting or clearing an assignment, are each recorded in the Audit log under Compensation, with who made the change. The record identifies the band and what it applies to, and holds no individual pay.