What do competitive wages mean

Employers who offer competitive pay are often willing to negotiate a salary if it means hiring a more qualified employee. In today's job market, competitive pay includes more than just the rate of your base salary. Base pay does not include bonuses, benefits or potential pay increases. Some employers who cannot offer base pay at a competitive rate instead offer competitive options for benefits packages, additional PTO or flexible work hours.

To understand and take advantage of competitive pay, you will need to do some specific research. There are several factors that affect the rates of competitive pay, and it will be helpful if you can familiarize yourself with each of them. Here is an overview of what affects competitive pay:. The city or state in which you are job searching will greatly impact the rate of competitive pay. Minimum wage and average salaries vary by state, so it is important to look at local statistics as a part of your research.

Two individuals working in the exact same position will be paid differently depending on location, so you will want to consult job listings in a variety of cities to get an idea of your going rate as a professional. The industry in which you want to work will also affect the competitive pay rate. Before applying for jobs or agreeing to an interview, make sure you research what professionals are typically paid in your chosen field.

If you have not yet committed to a certain industry, you may be applying for a wide variety of positions. This can be a highly effective tactic for job searching, but you will need to research every unfamiliar job title carefully to make sure the typical salary will meet your needs.

In areas where the need for a certain kind of employee is higher than the supply, your value as a potential hire could increase. If the pool of prospective employees is relatively small and you meet all the requirements for the job, you may be in a position to negotiate a salary that is higher than average.

When interviewing for a job, you may be able to find out how many other candidates there are and how long the company has been searching to fill the position. An employee in San Francisco should expect higher compensation rates than someone in the rural midwest, for instance. Everyone knows the law of supply and demand: the rarer and more sought after something is, the more valuable it is, and the more common and less desired something is, the less valuable it is. This principle applies to the job market as well as anything else.

On the flip side, if you have very basic skills and are one of dozens of qualified candidates, you can expect competitive pay to be on the lower end of the spectrum. Remember that location also affects availability. There might be many computer programmers in Silicon Valley, but the Rust Belt might not have such a deep pool of candidates.

Experience level. Entry-level applicants with little or no experience can expect lower compensation rates than those with a wealth of experience applying to higher-level positions. Things like education level, certifications, awards, and practical experience all determine your experience level. Build a professional resume in minutes.

Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. At a minimum, any job offering competitive pay should include the following in its benefits package :. Employer-sponsored health insurance. Health insurance consistently ranks as the most important benefit for employees in the United States.

The cost of insuring yourself privately is exorbitant in the extreme, so having this expense reduced significantly through high-quality employer-sponsored health insurance is a massive boon. Most companies also offer dental and vision insurance plans. Some even offer more advanced health care options, like flexible spending accounts.

Paid time off. Employees place a high premium on the ability to take time for themselves every now and then. Not having to worry about your income just because you want to take a vacation is a massive quality of life boost for employees.

Some companies offer unlimited vacation policies , which sound great in theory but do come with drawbacks namely, not being paid for unused vacation days.

Studies show that the average American has around 8 days of PTO each year, so offering more than this will be competitive for most job openings.

Note that senior-level people can expect more days of PTO. Competitive Wages Vs. By Neil Kokemuller. What Do Job Traits Mean? Contract Labor Vs. Part-Time Labor. Minimum Wage Basics The minimum wage is established and updated periodically by the federal government. Economic Impact The debate over the minimum wage level is very political. Competitive Wages Basics "Competitive wages" refers more to the efforts of employers to attract workers through industry-standard wages.

As a job candidate, you likely look at a competitive hourly rate based on the traits of a particular job. Assuming organizational culture and accessibility to the company are equal, you would naturally go for the position that offered the more competitive pay.

Similarly, an employee working in a job often views the pay for a given position relative to other opportunities when deciding whether to stick around. Some companies pay based on qualities you bring to the position as an employee, as much or more so than the work itself. In this case, a competitive hourly rate is one that is fair given what you bring to the table. Thus, someone with a college degree and more experience should command higher hourly pay than someone with little to no education or experience.

Thanks to websites that provide salary data, employers and job seekers can more easily find out the competitive pay ranges for specific jobs in specific locations.