How to compare salaries

SmallBusiness.com: The free small business resource

SmallBusiness.com How-tos are step-by-step instructions for specific small business tasks. They are created and edited by readers like you. You can help edit this How-to or you can create your own. Find more How-tos at the SmallBusiness.com How-to Hub.

Finding skilled and qualified employees for your business can be tough. Deciding what to pay them can be even tougher. If you need or want help with deciding exactly what salary to pay a new employee, the following Web sites may be able to help.

• [http://www.salaryexpert.com/ Salary Expert.com) allows you to plug in a job title and zip code or state, and will return a detailed chart with local averages, national averages and cost-of-living information.

• The salary calculator on Indeed.com is a basic calculator which also accepts job title and zip code, and allows you to enter a specific city within a state. A quick report comes back with local and national comparisons, and also includes titles related to the original search job title for more specific results.

• The very basic salary calculator on PayScale.com asks only for job title, city and state, and immediately returns a median salary range. Even more specific results can be found after answering additional questions about years of experience, skills and certifications for a particular position.

As always in the case of hiring and firing issues, work closely with your human resources professional to come up with the fairest compensation package, both for you and for new employees. Doing that and using the information found with some good research online will ensure you're not just arbitrarily deciding on an amount to pay a new employee, but that you've done your homework to make the best offer possible.