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.