Employee Compensation Software That Answers
"What's the Going Rate?"

Limitations of Using Survey Data Alone

All compensation surveys are not created equal. Some surveys, like those available through pilot networking or recruiting websites, may not be statistically valid. For a survey instrument to possess validity and reliability, the two hallmarks of statistical data collection and analysis, it needs to be created and administered by professionals who are knowledgeable in the field of statistics. Furthermore, to avoid bias in the data input, compensation data should not be entered by those in the positions being analyzed, but by those who are disinterested third parties, such as human relations or compensation professionals. There are only a few surveys where both of these conditions are satisfied – and those are the only surveys the AirComp Calculator™ uses.

But even with a valid survey, what number do you select? Do you merely consider the average compensation for a position, or do you use the number from the applicable class of aircraft? And how do regional corrections apply to the data? Moreover, since survey data is typically at least three months old by the time the survey is published, how do you age the data into the present? Finally, how do you avoid the appearance of “cherry-picking” numbers out of surveys that might support one side of the compensation discussion better than the other?