How to Determine the “Going Rate” for a Job

You need to hire a marketing person. You want to get a good one. You know that paying a competitive salary is important. But you don't want to waste money by paying too much.

So how do you figure out what is "fair." What is enough but not too much?

We posed this question to two staffing professionals - John Favell of MyStaff and AcctKnowledge, and Blayne Frieden of PeopleLink - and here are some of the places they suggest you look for answers:

1.    Your local chamber of commerce. Many regularly perform salary surveys of "going rates" for jobs in your area.

2.    Your local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world's largest human resources organization. It collects and distributes salary data.

3.    A local staffing or placement firm. These are in the business of consulting on staffing. They know what the going rate is for talent.

4.    Salary.com. This online resource bills itself as helping organizations "win the war for talent." Offering a bevy of services for companies and individuals, it tracks and retains a tremendous amount of salary data. Summary salary data are available for free online. Other services are available for a fee.

5.    Monster.com or your local "help wanted" listings. Whether online or in a traditional print publication such as your local newspaper, you can peruse "help wanted" ads in your area and find out what other companies offer for particular job types.

Unfortunately, none of these sources are instant or definitive. Rather, it's a process of gathering data from several sources and drawing conclusions. Even so, this "compiled data" approach should serve you better than shooting in the dark.