If you’re an employer, salary discussions are among the most important conversations you can have with potential hires — and your current employees, too. And for workers, it’s critical to know what level of compensation you can expect to earn in a job based on your skills and experience. It’s knowledge that can help you have constructive salary negotiations with employers and also understand what you may need to do as a professional to take the next step up in pay.

One comprehensive resource for employers, employees and job seekers that provides insight on current hiring and compensation trends is the Salary Guide From Robert Half. We’ve published this guide annually for decades — and we provide it for free. The data presented in the guide is the result of a rigorous, multistep process we use to make sure our projections for starting salaries accurately reflect what’s happening in the marketplace.

You can learn more about our process here. You can also get details on the three percentiles (25th, 50th and 75th) that we use to organize our starting compensation estimates for hundreds of roles across the following seven professional fields:

  • Finance and accounting
  •  Technology
  • Marketing and creative
  • Administrative and customer support
  • Healthcare
  • Legal
  • Human resources

What you’ll find inside Robert Half’s Salary Guide

Our Salary Guide, which we publish online, is designed for easy navigation to help you quickly access the information that interests you the most. It’s divided into three main sections:

1. Market Outlook

Here, you’ll get an overview of trends that are shaping the hiring environment in the United States and likely to impact your business or job search. You’ll find research and insights on several topics, including hiring challenges employers expect to face in 2024, remote and hybrid work trends, why more employers are adopting a variable talent model, and the value of salary transparency in job postings. 

2. Salaries and Trends by Profession

This is the portion of the guide where you can explore projected 2024 salaries by category and location in the seven professional fields mentioned earlier. So, for example, perhaps you want to know what level a highly skilled senior web developer could earn in 2024. Here’s what you’d do:

  • Go to the “Technology Salaries and Hiring Trends” section in the guide.
  • Under “View salaries by category,” use the drop-down menu to choose “Web Development” in the field labeled “Role category.”
  • Click the “View salaries” button.
  • Look in the field below, and you’ll see that the average starting compensation for that role and for a candidate at that highest level of experience is $160,000.

Now, say you want to localize that salary — and your market is Philadelphia. In the same field where you selected the role category, take these steps:

  • Insert your location information in the “City” field.
  • Click the “View Salaries” button.
  • Look in the field below, and you’ll see that the upper end of the projected salary for 2024 for a senior web developer in Philadelphia is $188,800. (You’ll also learn that starting salaries in Philadelphia are 18% higher than the national average for this role, based on our research.)

For each section in the guide that relates to one of the seven professional fields, you’ll find research on hiring trends specific to the field that is in focus. So, for instance, in “Technology Salaries and Hiring Trends” in our 2024 guide, the section titled “Hiring Trends in Technology” provides an overview of the hiring market, what skills managers say they are willing to increase salaries for, how tech employers are using contract talent and more.

3. Benefits and Perks

Of course, salary is only one component of a competitive compensation package. Benefits and perks matter, too, and today’s workers have high expectations about these offerings. That’s why we devote an entire section of the Salary Guide From Robert Half to research on what benefits and perks workers want most, and what employers generally offer.

In our latest guide, we also look at how benefits and perks have evolved over the past few years. One spoiler (although by no means a huge surprise): The percentage of employers offering flexible work options is up significantly — from 51% in 2019 to 77% today.

One tool, many uses

Robert Half has published an annual Salary Guide for so many years because we recognize that it is a valuable tool for employers, professionals who are currently employed and job seekers alike. The core aim of our Salary Guide is to help you to be right on the money, whether you’re:

  • Determining the salary for a new role at your firm
  • Calculating a raise for a valued employee
  • Benchmarking the salaries, benefits and perks you offer
  • Creating staffing plans and budgets for the year ahead
  • Preparing to ask your boss for a pay increase
  • Searching for a new job in your local market — or beyond
  • Launching a career, or considering a new professional path

Ready to get started? You can check out the latest Salary Guide right now on the Robert Half website.