---
title: Compensation bands
slug: compensation-bands
createdAt: 2022-02-28T23:15:47.000Z
---

ChartHop allows you to establish and maintain salary bands for your organization. Having well-defined compensation bands is the foundation that ensures you can retain your best talent, enable good hiring practices, and pay your employees fairly.

To see your bands and where employees fall within them, see **[Viewing compensation bands](https://docs.charthop.com/viewing-compensation-bands)**.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/CXAjUAezd9VEEVQBIYmdw/u1K83mE9FfnHx_ApIv8MN_compbands.png "Compensation bands")

You have the flexibility to configure your compensation bands to fit your organization's needs. This allows you to use ChartHop to match how your organization is currently tracking compensation.

You must have the Owner role in order to set up compensation bands. The following roles can view bands, but not edit them: Org editor, Recruiter, Sensitive data viewer, and Compensation viewer.

Compensation band information is divided into three aspects that you can define:

- Base, equity, and variable pay amounts
- Structure (department/team/group) and location multipliers
- Job level

Keep in mind that your organization may not use all of the components that ChartHop provides for compensation bands. For example, your companies might not have hourly employees or include equity as a part of your band structure.

## Levels are set up with comp bands

There is no separate Levels setup in ChartHop. Job levels are created as part of setting up your compensation bands.

- Levels are defined in the Compensation Bands wizard and the bands spreadsheet you download from it.
- In the wizard, choose one of three options:
  - Adopt an industry standard, such as Radford or Option Impact.
  - Create your own levels and map them to an industry standard.
  - Use custom names with no mapping.
- If you use custom names, define them on the **Job levels** tab of the spreadsheet. Each band row's **Job level** must exactly match a level. See [Complete your Bands spreadsheet](https://docs.charthop.com/_oZPgzLjyEAAuWzfQIzx9).
- To change levels later, go to Data Model > Job Architecture > Compensation Bands, select **Edit**, then open the **Settings** tab and use **Map job bands to levels** (or **Import changes**). See [Updating compensation bands](https://docs.charthop.com/OLJp-updating-compensation-bands).

Having trouble? See [Troubleshooting compensation bands](https://docs.charthop.com/eJ3a-troubleshooting-compensation-bands).

## Base, equity and variable pay

You can configure base pay ranges for annual salaries and/or hourly wages by specifying the minimum and maximum values for the range or by specifying a midpoint with a percentage spread. A target salary can be provided as guidance to recruiting or finance teams for new hires when it differs from the midpoint of the range.

Equity is represented by a single target value instead of a range. This value can be specified in shares, monetary amounts, or as a percentage of the actual base pay (not the band range).

Variable bonus is represented by a single target value instead of a range. This value can be specified in monetary amounts or as a percentage of the actual base pay (not the band range).

Equity and variable components are optional for all bands.

## Organizational structure

You can configure a hierarchical representation for your bands that matches your organization's structure. This structure helps organize and filter your bands. The grouping names you choose are meant to reflect the naming structure of your company.

For example, you could have a top-tier grouping called Technology which the Software development and the Information Technology divisions are both organized underneath. The example below further refines the structure by using career paths, such as IC (individual contributor) or manager, as the lowest-level grouping.

![](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/CXAjUAezd9VEEVQBIYmdw/a4IX_iSWLl7bV74U6fG9i_tier-bands-example.png "Example groupings")

:::hint{type="info"}
Setting up groupings is optional - you can choose to skip this section during the wizard.
:::

### Locations

Location multipliers allow you to reduce or increase a compensation band's value based on an employee's geographical location or cost of living. To use location multipliers, you must currently be storing location information for your employees in ChartHop. If you aren't storing location data in ChartHop, this band component isn't available to you.

### How location multipliers work: a worked example

Suppose you have a **Software Engineer** band with a base pay range of **$120,000–$160,000**, anchored to a baseline location (for example, Austin, TX).

If you configure a location multiplier of **1.10x** for New York City, ChartHop will automatically apply that multiplier to the band for employees in that location:

| Location              | Multiplier | Adjusted Range      |
| --------------------- | ---------- | ------------------- |
| Austin, TX (baseline) | 1.00x      | $120,000 – $160,000 |
| New York City         | 1.10x      | $132,000 – $176,000 |
| Denver, CO            | 0.90x      | $108,000 – $144,000 |

This means that when a manager or recruiter views the band for a New York-based Software Engineer, they will see the adjusted range — not the baseline range — so compensation decisions always reflect local market rates without requiring manual calculation.

:::hint{type="info"}
Multipliers apply to the entire range (minimum, midpoint, and maximum), not just the midpoint. A multiplier greater than 1.0 increases the range; a multiplier less than 1.0 decreases it.
:::

## Job levels

Job levels are a way to map your compensation bands to a standard level of performance within your organization. Levels are set up together with your comp bands, not separately. See [Levels are set up with comp bands](docId\:rkgLzGtQtddyAsNrFlLtu).

ChartHop allows you to use an industry-standard either directly, indirectly, or not at all. You can either:

- directly adopt one of the industry standards, such as Radford or Option Impact,
- create your own job levels and map them to an industry standard,
- or decide to use custom names and choose not to map them to industry-standard names.

## Settings tab

To open settings, go to Data Model > Job Architecture > Compensation Bands, select Edit, then open the Settings tab. Sections appear in this order:

- Starting Salary - Sets where in a band new hires land. Shown only when Compensation Bands is enabled. See Starting salary.
- Compensation Columns - Choose which compensation columns your bands use and how each value is expressed. You can enable or disable Target equity, Refresh equity, and Target variable bonus, each with a format of Shares, Flat Money, or % of Base. Disabling a column or changing its format removes its values from the affected bands and cannot be undone. The confirmation buttons read Disable & Remove Data and Change & Remove Data.
- Currency rounding - Round the values shown in charts to the nearest amount you set, for each currency. This affects the display only, not your saved band amounts.
- Hourly wage annual amounts - Shown only if your organization uses hourly salaries.
- Import changes via spreadsheet and Map job bands to levels - Bulk-update bands and map jobs to levels.
- Retire - Retire compensation bands you no longer use. See Retire compensation bands.

:::hint{type="info"}
[Modules:](https://www.charthop.com/pricing/) HRIS | Engagement | Goals | Performance | Compensation Reviews | Headcount Planning
:::

:::hint{type="info"}
[Roles](https://docs.charthop.com/user-roles-and-permissions): Owner | Org editor
:::