Stop Setting Pay One Negotiation at a Time
Salary structures built on market data, with an equity review that holds up if anyone asks.
Trusted Clients
Most growing companies set pay by whoever negotiated hardest.
It works until two people compare notes, a good employee leaves over $3,000, or someone asks why two people doing the same job are paid differently.
We build the structure that answers those questions before they're asked.
What we do
Job architecture.
Group roles into families and levels, and review exempt and non-exempt classification. Everything else depends on getting this right, and the classification review alone often surfaces problems worth more than the project.
Market analysis.
Price your roles against survey data, with Puerto Rico priced on its own market rather than discounted off a mainland figure. We calculate compa-ratios by grade so you can see exactly where you sit against the market, and where the gaps are.
Salary ranges and quartiles.
Grades, minimums, midpoints, maximums, and quartile progression. We set range width and overlap deliberately, because those choices decide how much room your managers have.
Internal equity review.
Compare pay within and across grades. Identify who sits below range and who sits above. Test for differences that your stated pay factors don't explain.
Implementation.
Cost out the moves, phase them if the budget requires it, and build the manager guide and employee communication. Most compensation projects fail here, not in the analysis.
Annual maintenance.
Age the ranges, run the merit matrix, refresh the market data. This is where a structure stays useful instead of becoming a document in a drawer.
How we scope it
We price by number of unique positions, not headcount. A 500-person company with 80 distinct jobs is a smaller project than a 200-person company with 150.
For larger organizations we run the work in cohorts, usually exempt staff, non-exempt staff, and any specialized population such as academic or clinical faculty. Each cohort gets its own analysis, draft, and final presentation, so you see results and can act on the first group while we work on the next.
What you get
A first draft presentation with initial findings and recommendations, revised with your input, then a final presentation with the consolidated analysis. Plus the underlying data files: job architecture, ranges, compa-ratios by employee, equity findings, and implementation costing.
What we need from you
To scope the work: a list of employees with position, hire date, exempt or non-exempt status, full or part-time status, current salary, and date of last increase.
Once we start: job descriptions where you have them, any existing salary scale, and current org charts.
Working under privilege
Pay equity findings can be discoverable in litigation. Where you have real exposure, we work at the direction of your counsel so the analysis is privileged. Set it up before we start.
Who leads this work
Isabel Soto-Albors
More than 30 years building compensation programs, including Director of Total Rewards at Walmart Puerto Rico and compensation leadership at 3M and Intel. She holds a Juris Doctor and teaches the Certified Compensation Professional certification courses in Puerto Rico.
View bio →One to two months for most organizations, depending on how quickly we get the data and how available your team is for review sessions.
Questions, Answered.
Job architecture, market pricing, salary ranges, and internal equity reviews, in English and Spanish.