In a highly competitive hiring environment, staying ahead requires more than just attractive job descriptions. Compensation is one of the most critical factors candidates consider — and TalentUp’s Analyze Competitors feature helps HR professionals ensure their compensation strategy is aligned with market expectations.
This feature equips HR leaders, recruiters, and compensation analysts with data-driven insights into how top companies are structuring pay, enabling more informed decisions to attract and retain top talent.
What Is the Analyze Competitors Feature?
The Analyze Competitors feature provides access to detailed compensation data from other employers — including your direct competitors. It helps you evaluate how companies across industries and regions are compensating talent by role, level, and location.
Use this feature to answer key strategic questions such as:
What are competitors paying for critical roles?
Are we aligned with market pay at different seniority levels?
Which roles may be under-compensated in our organization?
Where can we improve to remain competitive in attracting talent?
Key Capabilities
1. Search by Company Name
Select one or multiple companies for targeted benchmarking. TalentUp gives you access to a broad database of compensation data, covering diverse industries, company sizes, and regions.
2. View Compensation by Role and Seniority
Drill down into compensation specifics, including:
Average salary by role
Pay data segmented by seniority (e.g., junior, mid, senior, lead)
Compa-ratios relative to market medians
Insights into bonuses, equity, and other variable compensation elements
3. Compare Employers Side-by-Side
Run direct comparisons between your company and selected competitors, identifying differences in:
Base salary and total compensation
Role-specific hiring demand
Market positioning by seniority or function
This comparison allows you to spot gaps or strengths in your current compensation structure and adjust where needed.
Strategic Benefits for HR Teams
Attract Talent More Effectively
Ensure your compensation packages meet or exceed what other companies are offering for similar roles, giving you a competitive edge in hiring.
Retain High-Performing Employees
Use data to identify roles at risk of being underpaid. Adjust compensation before retention becomes a challenge.
Promote Pay Transparency and Consistency
Leverage objective, market-based data to support internal compensation conversations and policies.
Strengthen Employer Value Proposition
Align your compensation approach with external benchmarks to position your organization as a market leader and desirable workplace.
When to Use This Feature
During annual or biannual compensation reviews
While preparing offers for high-priority or competitive roles
When entering a new geographic region or industry
To assess market competitiveness during company restructuring or growth
For executive presentations and strategic planning
TalentUp’s Compare Salaries feature is designed to help HR professionals evaluate how salaries for a specific role vary across different markets and under different company conditions. Whether you’re planning to expand into a new country, benchmarking global compensation, or preparing for relocation offers, this feature offers the context and insights you need.
What Is the Compare Salaries Feature?
This tool allows you to:
Compare salaries for a single role across multiple locations
Use a reference city or country to measure % differences
Apply filters like company size, funding, and sector
Understand cost-of-living and job market differences by location
How to Perform a Salary Comparison Search
Select up to 10 Positions Use the dropdown menu to search and select the role(s) you want to compare. TalentUp provides a vast list of predefined job titles grouped by department (e.g., Engineering, Sales, HR, IT).
Select up to 10 Locations Choose the cities or countries you’d like to compare. This enables a side-by-side view of salaries across different markets.
Set a Reference Location Select one location (e.g., Barcelona) as your benchmark. All other salaries will be shown as a percentage increase or decrease relative to this location.
(Optional) Apply Smart Filters To fine-tune your comparison, you can filter by:
Company Size (based on number of employees)
Company Funding (relevant for startups and tech)
Company Sector (e.g., Fintech, Education, Healthcare)
Then click Search to generate the comparison table. [IMG1]https://talentup.io/apidocumentation/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Compare-Salaries-1.png[IMG2]
Understanding the Results
1. Salaries Table
This section shows the average gross salary for the selected role in each location, including:
Reference Location Salary The actual salary in your selected base location.
Salary in Other Locations Displayed both as a number and as a % difference from the reference.
Example For a Data Analyst with Barcelona as the reference:
Barcelona: €41,000
Amsterdam: €53,200 (+29.8%)
Berlin: €56,300 (+37.3%)
UK (country): €54,900 (+33.9%)
This helps you understand where talent is more expensive or more affordable.
2. Location Info: Detailed Explanation of Key Metrics
The Location Info section appears just below the salary comparison table and provides essential background data to help interpret salary differences across cities or countries. Here’s what each metric means and how it can guide HR decisions:
This is a relative index that reflects how expensive it is to live in a particular city or country. It considers the average cost of essentials such as:
Housing
Food and groceries
Transportation
Utilities
Healthcare
How to use it: A higher salary doesn’t always mean a better quality of life. If the cost of living is very high, employees may actually retain less disposable income. This metric helps assess real purchasing power across markets.
Salary / Cost of Living Ratio
This ratio compares the average salary offered in that location with the local cost of living. It’s categorized with qualitative labels like:
Excellent
Good
Average
Low
How to use it: An “Excellent” ratio indicates that the average salary allows for a comfortable lifestyle in that city. This is useful when evaluating relocation offers, setting remote worker compensation, or choosing expansion markets.
Offer
This is the number of active job postings for the selected role in that location. It reflects the hiring activity and market demand for the role.
How to use it: A high number of offers suggests strong competition for talent. This can influence recruitment difficulty, time to hire, and expected compensation ranges.
Demand
Represents the estimated number of available professionals in the market who match the selected role.
How to use it: This metric shows talent availability. Comparing it with the number of offers helps you understand whether the market is saturated with talent or if you’re entering a competitive hiring environment.
Offer / Demand Ratio
This is the ratio between job offers and available professionals:
A ratio below 1 indicates that supply exceeds demand, meaning more professionals are available than jobs.
A ratio above 1 indicates high demand, with more job offers than qualified professionals.
How to use it: This ratio helps you measure recruitment difficulty. A low ratio means it may be easier to hire, while a high ratio suggests a talent shortage and higher salary pressure.
Inflation – Country (%)
Shows the annual inflation rate in the country. It reflects how quickly prices are increasing for goods and services.
How to use it: This is important for salary adjustment planning, especially for long-term compensation policies or multi-year contracts. High inflation may erode the real value of compensation.
Population
Indicates the total population of the city or country. It provides general context about market size and labor force availability.
How to use it: Useful when evaluating market saturation, expansion potential, and talent pool size. A larger population doesn’t always mean more talent—it depends on education levels, skill development, and industry presence.
Unemployment – Country (%)
The percentage of the working-age population that is actively looking for jobs but is currently unemployed.
How to use it: This helps assess overall labor market health. Higher unemployment can mean a wider available talent pool, while lower unemployment suggests stronger competition and tighter markets.
Why This Data Matters
Salary comparisons alone don’t tell the full story. The Location Info section provides critical context for:
Determining real compensation value
Setting location-adjusted salary bands
Assessing hiring risk and timelines
Identifying cities with competitive advantages for recruitment
Whether you’re expanding, relocating, or benchmarking remote roles, these indicators help you move from raw numbers to actionable insights.
TalentUp’s Manage Employees feature is designed to help HR teams gain full visibility over their workforce compensation in relation to the external market. It offers a structured, data-driven way to monitor salaries, identify pay gaps, and make fair, competitive decisions at scale.
Whether you’re preparing for annual reviews, auditing internal equity, or building a compensation strategy, this tool makes it easy to analyze salaries in context—by role, location, seniority, and more.
What Can You Do in the “Manage Employees” Section?
This feature allows you to:
Upload and track employee compensation data
Filter your team by key attributes (role, location, department, etc.)
See how each employee’s salary compares to the market average
Flag potential issues like underpaid staff, retention risk, or internal inequality
Once filters are applied, the system displays all matching employees in a structured table, including:
Column
Description
Position
The employee’s job title
Department
The department they belong to
Seniority
Their experience level (junior, mid, senior, etc.)
Salary
Their current gross annual salary and currency
Compa Ratio
Ratio between their salary and the market benchmark
Benchmark Position
Whether the salary is Below, At, or Above market average
Location
City and country where the employee is based
Label
Tags to help track status or performance (e.g., Active, Risk loss, Unequal)
What Is the Compa Ratio?
The Compa Ratio compares an employee’s salary to the current market median for the same role and location.
1.00 = Market average
< 1.00 = Below market
> 1.00 = Above market
Why it matters: This helps ensure pay equity across regions, roles, and levels. It can also guide promotion and raise decisions, helping prevent talent loss due to under-compensation.
Use Case Examples
Retention Risk Identification Spot employees with below-market salaries who might be at risk of leaving.
Equity Audits Ensure employees with similar roles and performance are paid fairly.
Compensation Planning Prepare data-backed salary proposals during review cycles.
Headcount Strategy Understand how your internal salary structure aligns with the market to optimize budgets.
The Search Salaries feature is the starting point for exploring real-time, market-aligned compensation insights on TalentUp. Designed for HR professionals, recruiters, and compensation analysts, this tool enables you to quickly access and compare salary data for any role in any location—across industries and company types. Whether you’re preparing an offer, running an internal salary audit, or benchmarking compensation strategy, this feature provides you with access to TalentUp’s extensive market intelligence—based on millions of validated data points.
What You Can Do with the “Search Salaries” Feature
Search by job title or job description
Analyze gross, net, company cost, or contractor salary
Filter results by company size, funding, sector, and type
View market salary distribution by seniority
Explore variable compensation, supply and demand, gender gap, and benefits
How to Perform a Salary Search
1. Select a Position (Required)
Use the search bar or browse through TalentUp’s predefined library of roles grouped by function (e.g., Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Engineering, etc.). You can either:
Start typing the job title (e.g., “Data Analyst”)
Browse through categorized lists
Or use the “Search through job description” if you prefer keyword-based matching instead of titles
The platform will automatically link the job to the correct internal taxonomy used for benchmarking.
Choose the city or country where the position is based. The system will use this to fetch the most relevant and localized salary data, adjusted for cost of living, labor laws, and talent availability.
You can:
Type and select the desired location (e.g., “Paris” or “France”)
Compare results between cities (available in other features like “Compare Salaries”)
To refine your search, you can apply Smart Filters:
Company Size (Employees): Select the size of the organization to see how salaries vary in small, medium, or large companies.
Company Funding (€): Particularly useful for startups and tech companies. Filter by total investment raised to compare against similar growth-stage businesses.
Company Sector: Choose from predefined sectors (e.g., Fintech, Health Care, Manufacturing, Education) to benchmark within your industry.
Company Type: Options like Startup, Tech Hub, International Company, or Consultancy help narrow results to organizational models similar to your own.
Peer Group (Premium feature): Premium users can define custom peer groups to benchmark against a tailored set of comparable companies.
Below is a detailed explanation of each section you’ll encounter on the results page:
4. Salary Overview Section
At the top of the search results, the TalentUp platform displays a comprehensive summary of the base salary for the selected role and location. The summary serves as a quick reference point for understanding market compensation.
Here’s what you’ll typically see:
Median Base Salary (50th percentile): This threshold is the most common salary for the position, based on verified data. It represents the middle point of the market.
Example: 62,900 € Median Base Salary (50th percentile)
Number of Observations: Indicates how many data points were used to calculate the figure. The higher the number, the more robust and reliable the data.
Example: 442 observations
Last Update: Shows when the data was last refreshed, ensuring you’re working with current market information.
Example: (Updated: 14 Jan 2025)
Confidence Level: Reflects the platform’s assessment of data accuracy, based on sample size, consistency, and validation. Levels include: Excellent, Good, Moderate, or Low.
When available, TalentUp also includes additional compensation components:
Average Bonus per Year: Reflects common variable pay amounts added to the base salary (e.g., performance or annual bonuses).
Example: 13 € average bonus per year
Average Stock Options: If applicable to the role and market, this shows the average annual value of equity compensation.
Example: 16 € in stock options
These figures are especially relevant for roles in sectors like tech, sales, or executive-level positions, where variable and equity-based compensation are more common.
5. Salary Type Toggle Menu
By default, the TalentUp Salary Platform displays Gross Salary—the total pre-tax annual compensation typically listed in job offers. This is the most common benchmark used across industries and countries.
However, if you need a different perspective on compensation, you can adjust the view using the dropdown menu attached to the “Gross Salary” button. You can choose how to present the salary data by clicking on this button, which reveals additional options.
Net Salary Displays the estimated take-home pay after taxes and employee social contributions. The information is helpful for understanding what employees actually receive, especially in cross-border comparisons or employee communication.
Company Costs Shows the total cost to the employer, including gross salary plus mandatory employer contributions (e.g., social security, insurance, payroll taxes). This is essential for budget planning and understanding the real cost of headcount.
Contractor Salary Provides the average freelancer or contractor rate for the role. This is useful for companies that work with independent professionals or are evaluating cost differences between hiring models.
By switching between these options, HR professionals can conduct multi-angle benchmarking based on the employment model, local legislation, or internal budgeting needs. This flexibility makes it easy to compare full-time and freelance roles, assess gross vs. net differences, or calculate total compensation costs accurately across regions.
This section displays a clear summary of all the filters applied to your current search. It allows you to quickly review and, if needed, adjust the criteria used to generate the salary insights shown on the page.
These filters directly shape the data presented in the Salary Overview, Talent Supply, Gender Gap, Benefits, and more. Understanding them is key to ensuring you are comparing salaries within the right context.
Here’s what you’ll typically find:
Position The specific job title selected for analysis (e.g., Backend Developer)
Location The city or country where the role is based (e.g., Berlin)
Company Sector The industry or economic sector of the company (e.g., Fintech, Healthcare, Consumer Goods)
Company Size Based on number of employees (e.g., 51–100, 501–1000, +10,000)
Company Funding The funding range of the company, particularly relevant for startups and tech companies (e.g., €5M–€10M, +€100M)
Company Type Indicates the company’s business model or structure (e.g., Startup, International Company, Research Institution, IT Consultancy)
Peer Group(Premium feature) Available only to Premium users, this advanced filter lets you compare your company to a customized set of peers based on criteria like sector, size, and growth stage. It’s designed to support high-precision benchmarking and strategic compensation decisions.
You can directly adjust all of these filters from this section without initiating a new search. This flexibility helps HR professionals fine-tune their analysis in real time, ensuring that every benchmark reflects the most relevant market conditions for their organization.
In addition to base salary, the TalentUp Salary Platform provides insight into variable compensation, such as bonuses and stock options, which are essential for calculating total compensation.
This section highlights:
How many companies offer bonuses or stock options for the role
Estimated bonus and stock option values by experience level
How those values compare to base salary as a percentage
For example, you might see that:
13% of companies offer bonuses, and 3% offer stock options for this role.
These figures are based on aggregated market data and change depending on the role, experience level, and the filters you’ve selected, such as company size, funding, or industry.
A table is also provided, typically structured like this:
Level
Min Bonus (€)
Avg Bonus (€)
Max Bonus (€)
Bonus as % of Salary
Junior
8,400
11,200
19,300
27%
Mid
10,300
13,700
23,700
28%
Senior
12,200
16,200
28,000
26%
Lead
14,200
19,000
32,800
26%
Total Compensation = Base Salary + Bonus + Stock Options This allows HR professionals to accurately assess competitiveness, especially in industries where variable pay is a key factor (e.g., tech, finance, sales).
The platform also provides a gender distribution overview for the selected role and location. It shows the percentage of male and female professionals based on current market data.
Example:
Unbalanced Market Male: 63% Female: 37%
This data supports diversity and inclusion goals, internal pay equity analysis, and helps anticipate candidate expectations during the recruitment process.
Together, these sections provide a complete market context, helping HR professionals not only benchmark compensation but also understand the competitive landscape, gender dynamics, and the financial components shaping total rewards.
10. Benefits
The Benefits section on the TalentUp platform provides a well-rounded view of the total rewards associated with a role beyond base salary. These benefits are segmented into three categories—statutory, common, and additional perks—and will vary depending on the position, location, and selected filters such as company size or sector.
This allows HR professionals to understand not only what the law requires but also what the market commonly offers to remain competitive and attractive to talent.
Statutory Benefits
These are mandatory benefits established by national or local legislation. They typically include items such as:
Employer and employee payroll contributions (as a percentage of salary)
This section highlights the benefits most frequently offered by companies for the selected role and location. These are typically quantifiable or financial advantages such as:
Professional development budgets
Private health insurance coverage
Access to modern technologies or tools
Example (for a Data Scientist in Berlin):
Professional Development: €500 per year
Cutting Edge Technology: €1,500 per year
Health Insurance: €1,200 per year
These benefits represent standard expectations in the market and help define competitive packages.
These are non-financial or cultural benefits that contribute to employee satisfaction, work-life balance, and long-term retention. They are especially important in competitive talent markets and for employer branding. Examples include:
Flexible working hours
Remote work or hybrid models
Flat hierarchies
Casual dress code
Work-life balance initiatives
These perks vary widely by company and market but are increasingly critical in attracting top talent, especially in tech and knowledge-based industries.
By combining statutory obligations with common and additional benefits, the TalentUp platform provides HR professionals with a complete view of the total rewards environment—helping them design packages that are both compliant and compelling.
