Over the past years it has become painfully evident that the quality of available location-specific pay data on generic jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area has been deteriorating. The CompAnalysis consultants have observed that fewer and fewer employers are willing to take the time to submit their cash compensation information for inclusion in established surveys. A significant erosion in both sample sizes and data specificity has resulted.

The Greater San Francisco Bay Area Compensation Survey has become one of the most valued data sources for jobs located in the nine Bay Area counties and two Central Coast counties. It will greatly enhance your ability to set your salary administration guidelines in a way that will enable you to cost-effectively attract and keep your valuable employees. To make the survey the definitive source of local pay data, we invite you not only to participate, but also to work with CompAnalysis to add or delete jobs, modify the job descriptions and/or alter the supplemental information requested in future years. Our goal is to meet your needs.

We have noted that the reported ranges of actual salaries are becoming wider, an indication that (1) organizations are setting salaries without the benefit of explicit labor market indicators, and/or (2) job matching in connection with survey participation has become significantly less disciplined than it was in the past.

In addition, your organization is now faced with increasing challenges from your employees due to their use of Internet sources for pay data. Those of us involved in compensation management understand the shortcomings associated with the use of Web-based "information," but others seem to be fascinated with the availability of these free data. Unfortunately, you will be increasingly unable to respond in the best interests of your organization without statistically valid information on job-specific wages, salaries and other cash compensation elements.

A significant part of your competitive advantage as an employer relates to pay. It is imperative that you be able to access reliable sources of pay data that are specific to your location(s), jobs, and organizational size. In today's unstable economy, using current data to make informed pay decisions is more critical than ever.

Ever aware of the time and cost pressures most of us are experiencing these days, we have done everything possible to make the survey both affordable and easy to complete without compromising its usefulness. You can choose to submit data manually, via e-mail on Excel spreadsheets, or directly on the www.salarysurveys.com Web site.

CompAnalysis has always advocated the use of multiple sources of survey data to determine the labor market "ballpark" for jobs. Every data source has inherent limitations, so using multiple sources provides you with the most realistic available information. Even if you currently participate in other surveys, it will be in your best interests to add our new survey to your resources.

You can submit data without purchasing the report. There is no obligation to buy. We welcome all submissions, whether or not you commit to purchasing the report today. However, we are certain that, once the data is compiled, you will want to have the report to help you make pay decisions.