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<aside> 🪟 Pay transparency refers to companies being open about the compensation provided for current and prospective employees, as a step towards pay equity.
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Research shows that certain demographics are more likely to receive raises than others and some demographics suffer from ongoing bias that leads to a lower salary through the span of a career. Township makes a considerable effort to compensate all of its employees fairly. One of the most powerful tools a company can offer to ensure fair pay is by offering a transparent compensation structure.
Township offers transparency in the following ways:
| What? | Why? |
|---|---|
| Pay changes are considered on a set schedule only. Pay is evaluated each year during Q1 and Q3, with pay increases taking effect on 4/1 and 10/1. | This ensures that the responsibility doesn’t fall on the employee to ask for a raise, as some people are comfortable asking for raises frequently, while others aren’t comfortable at all. Raises on the same rhythm make it more likely that teammates receive similar increases over time. |
| Compensation is set based on skill level, not tenure, years of experience, or education. | Township respects the wide range of backgrounds that may lead to a career with us. Some paths take longer than others, and all paths take a unique shape. Employee pay ranges are set using pay bands, meaning employees of equal levels are all receiving pay within a 15% pay range. Township does not make exceptions to these bands, allowing employees to be sure that no one on their team is receiving a secret exception to established pay bands. |
| Compensation increases with growth, and growth is a major focus at Township. | Township makes every effort to ensure that its employees experience continuous growth. It’s the highest responsibility of our managers, and we’ve outlined growth opportunities in a way that allows employees to take ownership and chart their path in Untitled (https://township.notion.site/73fe3ae677fd449ab746db34af9a3ab3) |
| Management and individual contributors are compensated the same, even though the roles and responsibilities are quite different. | Traditional wisdom suggests that companies should promote their highest performers into management roles, regardless of their interest in or ability to be a manager. Township equalizes management and ICs in an effort to remove incentive from choosing one over the other. Both paths have a clear path set for them within Township, and contribute to the overall team success in important and unique ways. |
We value life work harmony for all at Township, which has been a guiding principle for designing our employment terms, including compensation. We have long given up on trying to compete with the salary offerings found in Big Tech, and in turn have designed a compensation structure that will afford our employees the opportunity to work a healthy and predictable set of hours most weeks. This formula also allows us to keep the business afloat long-term while still keeping pay competitive, coming in at above the US average (around the 60th percentile) for each role.
Additionally, Township offers a high level of compensation transparency. While individual salary numbers are not made available, all pay band data for every role at Township is made public.
The goals of Township’s compensation program are:
<aside> 🪟 These bands were reset in Q3’22 considering data from the following sources: Payscale Benchmark, Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, Zip Recruiter, and Built In. We set our “Base” pay for each level at the 60th percentile of the market average. Township will continue to monitor market trends on a regular basis, and update its compensation model to reflect evolving trends as needed.
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Township employees are evaluated for two salary increases per year during Q1 and Q3, with salary changes taking effect on 4/1 and 10/1. Salary bands are established per department, and each pay band has three “milestones,” Starting, Base, and Max.