A San Francisco-based European company was looking to break into a new growth industry that required hiring and relocating talent to different cities in the U.S.
Challenges
They faced two main challenges:
- How to hire specialized labor in new markets while maintaining fair and competitive pay practices
- How to set market rates of pay in the absence of market data (since this was a new industry and adequate data was not available in the new locations)
Solution
They reached out to AIRINC to ask if other companies we work with had encountered these challenges and, if so, how did they address it?
The answer was to supplement their existing market rates of pay for these roles with cost-of-living data (goods and services, housing, and taxes) to see how pay translated to the new locations where they needed to hire/move talent. In the end they were able to bucket the locations into tiers based on their cost-of-living profile by comparison to San Francisco.
In the end they were able to bucket the locations into tiers based on their cost-of-living profile by comparison to San Francisco.
Example: The values in this exhibit are for illustrative purposes only
Job grade 10 mid-point = USD 120,000 in San Francisco CA
Conclusion
This approach allowed them to avoid setting new salary structures for their new locations and to provide a pay structure that was equitable and fair to their employees. As more market data becomes available, they will continue to benchmark their pay levels accordingly. This project helped them to quickly respond to a pressing business need to attract and retain key talent in new markets and to expand their business.
