Center for Economic Vitality

Western Washington University College of Business and Economics

Advancing the Economic Vitality of Our Communities

Business Resources

Salary Information

How much should you pay? How much should you be making? Check these sites to find out more about wage and salary ranges, who makes what, and typical job descriptions.

SalaryExpert.com

   Useful benchmark for salary determinations. While this information is of national scope, your local salaries may differ.

Job StarCentral - Salary Information

   General and position specific salary surveys.

Salary Source - Online Compensation Information

   This is the ultimate tool for assessing the current market value for any of the nearly 350 benchmark positions. Salary Source is the premiere salary survey tool available that uses multiple survey sources.

Salary Surveys (in alphabetical order)

   The "Salary Surveys" section provides a comprehensive listing of compensation resources for a wide variety of industries.

Bellingham Wages - Bureau of Labor and Statistics

   One of the best locations for local wage rates by occupation. You can also search the BLS Web sie by state.

General Salary Information

   Shows national averages for wage rate. This site tends to project slightly higher than comparable Web sites because it is based on larger businesses.

America's Career InfoNet

   Wages and trends by occupation and state.

Employee Benefits Survey

   Characteristics of employee benefits plans.

Women's Bureau

   Reports on earnings by gender and nontraditional occupations for women.

Workforce Management

   This site analyzes human resource trends and provides the tools that drive business results. There are a variety of links to articles that are updated monthly. A subscription is required to view some articles.

U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook

   The "Handbook" describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations.

WorkForce Occupation Explorer

   The best site for finding accurate salary information for Washington State or any of the counties. Descriptions of occupations are also available.

Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System

   The SOC is used by the U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau Statistics) for defining occupations. This site contains links to descriptions of all of the defined occupations. This is an excellent resource for defining positions within a business.