Are You a Wage Expert?

Your client might need a $100,000 salaried direct-hire placement, a $75-per-hour contractor, or a minimum-wage clerk, and in every case they expect you to be their staffing expert and know the going pay rate. That was the premise of this post in February 2010, and it still describes the job.

The Original Advice From 2010

To be a client's staffing expert, you need to handle wage questions quickly. Back then, we pointed recruiters to three websites:

• U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Salary.com
• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division

Staffing trends, staffing demand, and state wage guidelines change all the time, and these sites helped recruiters keep up. One correction to that list: our original post placed the Wage and Hour Division under the Employment Standards Administration. The DOL abolished the Employment Standards Administration on November 8, 2009, and the Wage and Hour Division has reported directly to the Secretary of Labor as a stand-alone agency ever since.

Using BLS Wage Data to Price a Job

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program publishes employment and wage estimates every year for roughly 830 occupations, for the nation, for each state, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. For a recruiter, the metro-area numbers are where the value is. The same role can pay very differently from one metro to another, and OEWS lets you show a client a range with a government source behind it.

A few tips for using it well:

• Match the occupation by duties. Job titles vary from employer to employer, so compare what the person actually does.
• Look at the full spread of wage percentiles. A client hiring a senior specialist should be pricing toward the upper end, while an entry-level role sits lower.
• Check the reference period. OEWS estimates trail the market, so in a fast-moving field, pair them with current job postings or a private salary survey.

Minimum Wage and Pay Transparency Rules

At the other end of the pay scale, the wage floor depends on where your worker sits. The DOL keeps a state-by-state minimum wage table, and many states set rates above the federal $7.25 an hour. Some local governments go higher still, so check the city or county where the work will actually happen.

Pay transparency laws add another layer. Colorado, for example, requires each job posting to include the pay or pay range for the position, along with a general description of bonuses, commissions, and benefits, under its Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. Other states and cities have passed their own versions, and they differ on who's covered and what counts as a posting. If you post jobs on a client's behalf, confirm which rules apply before the ad goes live.

Prevailing Wage for H-1B Workers

Once an H-1B worker is involved, the market rate becomes a legal floor. The employer must pay at least the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation and area or its own actual wage for similarly employed workers, according to the DOL's H-1B required wage fact sheet. The DOL's Office of Foreign Labor Certification publishes its wage data through the OFLC Wage Search on the FLAG system. For more background, see our posts on how prevailing wage is calculated and how prevailing wage compares to minimum wage.

The Takeaway

Pricing a role well is still one of the quickest ways to earn a client's trust. Keep the BLS, the DOL's state minimum wage table, and your state's pay transparency rules bookmarked. And when you place a contract worker with FoxHire as the Employer of Record, we handle the payroll, tax withholding, and state compliance that follow once you've set the rate.