Carta Release Notes Product Updates logo
Back to Homepage

Product Updates

Subscribe to Updates

Labels

  • All Posts
  • Corporations
  • Venture Capital
  • Carta LLC
  • Carta Liquidity
  • Carta Total Comp
  • Equity Advisory
  • Mobile
  • Carta Launch
  • 409A
  • Employees
  • Investors (Corporations)
  • Investors (Fund Admin)
  • Limited Partners
  • Board Members
  • Compliance
  • Early Access
  • General Availability
  • Investor Experience

Jump to Month

  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
Carta Total Comp
a year ago

Quarterly benchmark refresh and new Life Sciences industry benchmarks

What’s new?

We have three new updates included as a part of this benchmark version:

  • Quarterly benchmark refresh 
  • New Life Sciences industry benchmarks 
  • Peer group updates

Quarterly benchmark refresh

We have updated salary, total cash compensation, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations. 

Market Trends

Salary and total cash compensation benchmarks are generally flat since our last update. These trends are fairly consistent across company valuation and level. As in previous updates, specialization level data continues to be more volatile than the broader sample, as sample sizes for these roles are smaller than job area-level data. 

Equity benchmarks have decreased approximately 1%, less than last quarter’s 9%. Equity benchmarks have been decreasing steadily since the beginning of the year, and it’s possible that the market is starting to stabilize close to a “new normal”. We did observe larger decreases, however, among later stage companies indicating that these companies (similar to public companies earlier in 2023) are focused on managing dilution in the face of falling valuations

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Project Management roles saw the largest increase this quarter (+5%), balancing out the larger decrease that this job area saw last quarter. Notably our AI/ML engineering benchmarks increased by approximately 3%. IT and Legal salary benchmarks decreased by 3% versus last quarter. All other job areas saw salary changes that were within 2% of last quarter’s benchmarks.

Equity - Human Resources and Finance roles saw the largest decreases. Some job areas and specializations did see overall increases to equity benchmarks this quarter, such as Sales Development, Sales/Solutions Engineering, and Art and Graphic Design. Most other job areas changed by 3% or less versus last quarter though there can be variance by level and valuation peer group.

Life Sciences industry benchmarks 

We have released initial benchmarks for three new specializations specific to the Life Sciences industry:

  • Scientist
  • Research Associate
  • Lab Operations

Benchmarks for these roles were developed based on employee data taken exclusively from the Life Sciences companies in our database, making these benchmarks our first industry specific benchmarks. These benchmarks are reflective of the geographic distribution of Life Sciences talent, with markets like Boston, San Diego, Seattle, and Los Angeles joining San Francisco and New York as the top labor markets for these roles.

Peer group updates

Finally, in an effort to increase the overall quality of our benchmarks, we will no longer provide data for the Below $1M valuation peer group. Variability of pay within that group tended to be high, and many of our benchmarks were less relevant for companies at such an early stage. Any customers with Plans set to use the Below $1M will automatically default to the $1M - $10M peer group after updating to the latest benchmark version.

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.

How do I see benchmarks for the new Life Sciences industry specializations?

You can view benchmarks for the new specializations by:

1. Visiting the Benchmarks page and selecting “Research” under Area. Once the job area is selected, you can select “Life Sciences” from the Industry dropdown and any of the new specializations by selecting the Specialization dropdown.

2. This will allow you to view salary/equity benchmarks for levels 1-3 for Research Associate, levels 4-6 for Scientist, and levels 1-5 for Lab Operations

Questions?

If you have any questions about these new benchmarks or if you have suggestions for additional Life Sciences specific data, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Avatar of author