What’s new?

We have added new geographic adjustment factors for three cities in Canada: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The rest of Canada will now have its own geo-adjustments for salary and equity

How do I view new benchmarks?

In order to see city-specific geo-adjustments for Canada you will need to update your benchmark version. You can update your benchmark version by navigating to the Benchmarks page and clicking on the "Preview benchmarks" bubble in the top left.

Here you will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

Once your benchmark version has been updated you will be able to see the new adjustments on the Benchmarks page, within your Compensation Plan, and both the Company and Employee Scorecards

Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

We have added a new peer group category to view salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks – based on capital raised. 

How do I view new benchmarks?

You can view the new capital raised-based benchmarks by visiting the Benchmarks page and selecting the peer group filter. The new peer groups will be in the dropdown alongside the current peer groups based on post-money valuation and headcount.

How do I use these new benchmarks in my Compensation Plan and Scorecards?

We are working on a future update that will allow companies to use any of our peer groups in their Compensation Plans and Scorecard. 

Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

We have updated salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations across both valuation and headcount based peer groups.

Benchmark Trends

In aggregate, salary and total cash compensation benchmarks are slightly higher than our last release, increasing by a bit more than 1%. These increases were consistent across all valuation peer groups and levels. Similar to previous updates, specialization level data continues to change more than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area level data.

Equity benchmarks are increasing in aggregate, showing about a 3% increase versus last quarter. Similar to last quarter, increases are fairly tightly correlated with company valuation, with higher valuation benchmarks seeing the largest increases.

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Salary benchmarks for most job areas and specializations are within 2% of last quarter’s data. Social Media Marketing and Logistics & Supply Chain saw the largest increases versus last quarter

Equity - Equity benchmarks are generally within 5% of last quarter’s benchmarks. There is more variation by role in this quarter’s release, with Recruiting, Strategy, and Partnerships showing the largest increases. Mobile, Logistics & Supply Chain, and Art & Graphic Design are showing the largest decreases

How do I update my benchmark version?

You can also preview the new benchmarks on your Scorecard by navigating to the Benchmarks page and clicking on the "Preview benchmarks" bubble in the top left.

Here you will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

Carta Total Compensation is excited to introduce Custom Paybands, a new feature that allows customers to define, manage, and evaluate compensation using their own salary and equity ranges. Previously, users relied on benchmark-based market bands; however, with Custom Pay Bands, customers can now set their own pay ranges for specific job areas and levels, ensuring alignment with their internal compensation strategy.

How can I access paybands?

1. Navigate to the Paybands page in Carta Total Compensation
2. Review the details of your Compensation Plan
3. Click “Create Paybands”

1. You’ll be shown a list of paybands that have been automatically created for you

How do I edit paybands?

1. From the Paybands screen, click on the payband that you’d like to edit
2. Click edit on the individual payband page
3. You can now enter new minimum, target, and maximum salaries/equity grants for each level. You may also enter notes to document any decisions. You can also rename the band.
4. Click “Save” to return to the individual payband view

How do I create paybands for multiple locations?

1. Under Compensation Plan, navigate to Payband settings
2. Select a location where you would like to create paybands
3. Set an adjustment factor off of top-of-market benchmarks for the new location
4. Click + add location adjustment to add  more locations
5. After editing this section, click on Preview & Save so the system can re-calculate the scorecard

Note: You will need to enter all relevant locations here in order for employee comparisons on the Scorecard to be accurate.

Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback about Custom Paybands, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

We have updated salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations across both valuation and headcount based peer groups, as well as for Life Sciences-specific roles 

Benchmark Trends

In aggregate, salary and total cash compensation benchmarks are slightly higher than our last release, increasing by 1%. These increases were consistent across all valuation peer groups and levels. Similar to previous updates, specialization level data continues to change more than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area level data. 

Equity benchmarks are increasing in aggregate, showing about a 2% increase versus last quarter. Similar to last quarter, increases are fairly tightly correlated with company valuation, with higher valuation benchmarks seeing the largest increases.

Updated headcount based benchmarks continue to show larger than typical increases or decreases compared to our initial release for a number of roles. This is a result of additional data, improvements to our underlying models, and feedback from customers.  Going forward we expect these benchmarks to be less volatile over time (similar to our valuation-based benchmarks). 

The same is true for Life Sciences benchmarks. This quarter marks the first update of these benchmarks since their initial release. Since their initial release the sample size underlying these benchmarks has increased significantly (a roughly 50% increase in employee records), which caused larger than typical increases or decreases for a number of roles.

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Salary benchmarks for most job areas and specializations are within 2% of last quarter’s data. 

Equity - Equity benchmarks are generally within 5% of last quarter’s benchmarks. Roles that are increasing by more than 5% are Partnerships and Strategy.

How do I update my benchmark version?

You can also preview the new benchmarks on your Scorecard by navigating to the Benchmarks page and clicking on the "Preview benchmarks" bubble in the top left.

Here you will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

Up until now, all equity benchmarks in Carta Total Compensation have been based on fully diluted ownership percentage. While it’s common practice for most early to mid-stage startups to base their equity grants on percentage ownership, later stage companies tend to denote their equity grants in dollar values.

To better serve those companies, equity benchmarks based on notional value are now available on the Benchmarks page. These new benchmarks are available for the $500 million - $1 billion and Greater than $1 billion post-money valuation peer groups. These benchmarks reflect 4-year new hire grants calculated based on number of shares multiplied by preferred price on the date of grant.

How can I access the new notional value benchmarks?

1. Navigate to the Benchmarks page in Carta Total Compensation
2. After selecting either the $500 million - $1 billion or Above $1 billion peer group, in the Equity Unit dropdown menu, select “Notional Value”

For this initial release, these benchmarks are only available on the Benchmarks page. We will be integrating notional value benchmarks into other parts of Carta Total Compensation in the coming months.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

We have updated salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations across both valuation and headcount based peer groups. 

Benchmark Trends

In aggregate, salary and total cash compensation benchmarks are slightly higher than our last release, increasing by 1%. These increases were consistent across all valuation peer groups and levels. Similar to previous updates, specialization level data continues to change more than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area level data.

Equity benchmarks are increasing in aggregate, showing about a 2% increase versus last quarter. This quarter’s increases are fairly tightly correlated with company valuation, with higher valuation benchmarks seeing the largest increases.

Updated headcount based benchmarks show larger than typical increases or decreases compared to our initial release for a number of roles. This is a result of additional data, improvements to our underlying models, and feedback from customers.  Going forward we expect these benchmarks to be less volatile over time (similar to our valuation-based benchmarks)

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Salary benchmarks for most job areas and specializations are within 2% of last quarter’s data. 

Equity - Equity benchmarks are generally within 5% of last quarter’s benchmarks. Roles that are increasing by more than 5% are Product Marketing, Admin, Project Management, Support, and UX Design

How do I update my benchmark version?

You can also preview the new benchmarks on your Scorecard by navigating to the Benchmarks page and clicking on the "Preview benchmarks" bubble in the top left.

Here you will have the opportunity to preview the new plan with the updated benchmarks version and assess their impact on your Scorecard before accepting the new plan.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

Board members, investors, and company executives need to to ensure, from a governance perspective, that equity is being used responsibly by the company. To support this need we are launching a new set of benchmarks to help companies evaluate their equity usage versus peers:

1. Option pool size - the percentage of fully diluted shares reserved to grant to people in the future
2. Equity burn rate -  the percentage of fully diluted shares granted over the last 365 days

How can I access the new Equity Plan Benchmarks?

1. Navigate to the Benchmarks page in Carta Total Compensation
2. Navigate to the “Option pool & Burn rate” tab on the Benchmarks page 

The appropriate benchmarks, based on your company’s valuation, will be highlighted on the page.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What’s new?

We are launching an updated version of our Equity Refresh Planner to better help with:

1. Identifying which employees receive a grant
2. Deciding the size of each refresh grant based on market benchmarks 

This updated tool includes:

1. The ability to add/remove employees to your company’s Refresh Plan
2. Quick filters to quickly identify eligible and/or High Retention risk employees based on tenure, your compensation plan, and market targets.
3. Settings to help manage the refresh grant recommendation and tenure eligibility criteria

How can I access the new Equity Refresh planner?

1. Navigate to the Reports page in Carta Total Compensation
2. Navigate to the “Equity Refresh” tile and click “View report” 
3. The interactive planner will open

How do I use the Advanced Equity Refresh planner? 

This planner helps companies identify employees who should be considered for additional equity grants as a way to retain talent at the company. It also provides market based refresh grant recommendations that can be adjusted as needed.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this new planner, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Starting today, Carta is enabling you to easily determine how much equity to grant employees and when to grant it via new tools such as the Hiring Planner, Refresh Grant Planner, and Equity Pool Forecast.

Only Carta can help you: 

• Minimize manual work using a single platform
• Take a proactive approach to thinking about impacts of equity grants on your equity pool
• Conduct accurate forecasting using integrated benchmarks from Carta Total Compensation

What’s new?

With our new suite of Employee management tools, administrators have access to four new features:

1. Manage Employees hub: See the tools, required steps, and resources to help you hire, manage and retain your team.
2. Hiring Planner: Add potential new hires to see recommended equity and cash compensation based on market data, and export plans to share with your team and investors.
3. Refresh Grant Planner: See which employees are completing vesting soon, and plan out refresh grants to tenured employees to help retain top performers
4. Equity Pool Forecast: Visualize your equity grants, hiring, and retention initiatives and their impact on your equity pool over time.

Who is this available for?

All Corporation founders and administrators who can view their company’s cap table.

How do I use it?

You can access these flows by going to your Carta account, and going to Manage Employees in the side navigation. From there, you can easily access all of the additional tools.

View a demo walkthrough of this feature.

Anything else I need to know? 

If there is anything you wish to see here, use the feedback form that will show up when you first visit the Manage employees page. If you have already responded and have additional feedback, or cannot find the form, you can reach out to your CSM or provide feedback via Carta Community.