Salary surveys

I get them from industry groups and placement gencies regularly. But, I don't see any of them as valid. They are broad and generic. There are too many variables and too much individuality in what various employers pay.

Salaries are all over the place. Trust me. I've regularly sought employment throughout my career. And, often out of state. There is no predicting salaries based on title, company size, location, etc. Especially when it comes to finance staffing.

Every time I think I can't be shocked anymore than I already have been, I encounter some position with a salary that is far, far different than I expect it to be. That's both high and low.

Robert Half Financial for any accounting / finance related. I have used Payscale.com and compared that to Salary.com and found some some large discrepancies between the two so this year I used Payscale because it seemed more real for my area and asked our personality profiling team at Hire Well Now to analyze because they use Career Builder and they were very close to Payscale.com.

oNetonline.org is another good resource.

Thank you for your collective insights (and those that will come later).

For free:
Payscale is pretty good with combining the salary and cost of living.

Glassdoor, while is 100% employee submitted, is also pretty good. Some can have pretty large ranges, but it's nice that you can see for a specific company.

Salary.com's free service is ok, but not great.

Industry/Sector-specific staffing firms (Dice, Robert Half, etc.) are also good places, but you may have to contact someone there who will try to sell you on their services before you can get the data - still usually free in terms of dollars, but may cost time.

For pay:
Our local Tech Council publishes an annual salary guide based on member (employer) surveys, which is excellent for local employer data.

Also, salary. com's program for employers was very good - but it's been 3 or so years since I've had to use it.