Survey Methodology
Job-match-based survey
Also called: per-job survey, summary-data survey
A survey methodology where employers submit one data row per role, summarizing the pay across all employees in that role.
Job-match-based surveys collect compensation data at the role level. Each row in the submitted dataset is a job (matched to a benchmark), with summary statistics (number of incumbents, average base salary, median bonus, etc.) for that job at the participating employer.
Job-match surveys are easier for participants to complete than incumbent-based surveys, and they're often the format used for industry-association surveys (e.g., CUPA-HR, MGMA, PAS). Newer specialty surveys also tend to start in this format before maturing to incumbent-based.
Tradeoff: job-match data is summary data, so the published percentiles are statistics-of-summaries rather than statistics-of-incumbents. Confidence intervals are typically wider per role.