May 25, 2023 Benchmarks

What’s new?

• Updated salary, total cash, and equity benchmarks for all job areas and specializations
• Updated US geographic differentials for all metro areas
• New total cash compensation benchmarks for all roles (total cash compensation benchmarks are reflective of employees who receive both base salary and some form of variable compensation)
• 90th percentile data for all roles and elements of compensation. Users can now set their target market position and view 90th percentile data on the Bands page.

Market Trends

Salary and total cash compensation benchmarks have fallen slightly (approximately 1% overall) since last quarter, reflecting a continued down market for startup talent. We’re observing that new hire salaries across many roles are closer to or below our previous benchmarks, causing many salary benchmarks to decrease. On a role-by-role basis, we’re seeing a bit more volatility in this quarter’s data as compared to the last six months. 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 9%, less than last quarter’s 15%. Lower benchmarks cut across most roles and levels, though executive equity grants dropped slightly less, and even increased in some cases. 

Looking across updated geographic differential data, most metro areas that moved closer to San Francisco pay levels have maintained their differentials compared to last year. This year, we see more cities outside of traditional tech hubs also moving closer to San Francisco pay levels (in particular metro areas across North Carolina and Florida)

What were the largest areas of movement from these benchmarks?

Salary - Sales, Research, and Strategy roles saw the largest increases, approximately 1-5% versus last quarter. Marketing, Administration, and Project Management roles saw the largest decreases ranging from 5-6%. The decreases for Marketing and Administration are driven by corrections that we have made for how certain roles are being categorized within these job areas. Information Technology also saw a larger decrease, largely due to the small sample size for this job area.

Equity - Support, Human Resources, and Strategy roles saw the largest decreases. Decreases in Product, Finance, and Operations were less pronounced than the overall sample

How do I update my plan to use the new benchmarks version?

You can update your compensation plan to use the latest benchmark versions either by:

Visiting the Plan page and clicking on the "Update available" link in the Active Plan window.

Navigating to the Bands page and clicking on the "Update" bubble in the top left.

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.

What’s next?

Carta Total Compensation is developing benchmarks for new specializations.