Payroll Benchmarking
See which of your people are underpaid before they tell you
A fictional twelve-person team benchmarked in one upload, sorted by how far each salary sits from its market median.
What the agent was given
- File
- northbank-customer-team-2026.csv
- Rows uploaded
- 14 employees
- Columns supplied
- Reference, job title, location, salary
- Currency
- GBP
- Comparison basis
- Base salary, excluding bonus
- Names included?
- No, employee references only
What came back
Below their band
3 of 12
Paid more than 10% under the market median for their role and location
Average gap
-1.0%
Across the team, against market median
Cost to reach the band
£6,050
To lift all 3 to 10% under their market median
Benchmarked payroll
£632,500
Base salary across the 12 matched rows
Distribution
Where the team sits
Most of a healthy payroll sits inside its band. The 3 below it are the conversations worth having first, and the cost of closing all of them here is £6,050, less than one exit and rehire at this level.
Every row, worst gap first
Benchmarked employees
| Ref | Role | Salary | Market median | Gap | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NB-077 | Senior Customer Success ManagerLondon | £62,000 | £72,000£64,000 to £82,000 (25th to 75th) | -13.9% | Below band |
| NB-091 | Customer Success ManagerManchester | £41,000 | £47,500£42,000 to £53,000 (25th to 75th) | -13.7% | Below band |
| NB-131 | Technical Support EngineerManchester | £39,000 | £45,000£41,000 to £50,000 (25th to 75th) | -13.3% | Below band |
| NB-110 | Onboarding SpecialistManchester | £34,000 | £36,500£34,500 to £40,000 (25th to 75th) | -6.8% | In band |
| NB-084 | Customer Success ManagerManchester | £46,000 | £47,500£42,000 to £53,000 (25th to 75th) | -3.2% | In band |
| NB-062 | Senior Customer Success ManagerManchester | £60,000 | £61,500£54,000 to £70,000 (25th to 75th) | -2.4% | In band |
| NB-103 | Customer Success ManagerLeeds | £44,500 | £45,000£40,000 to £50,500 (25th to 75th) | -1.1% | In band |
| NB-118 | Onboarding SpecialistRemote (UK) | £37,000 | £36,500£33,000 to £40,000 (25th to 75th) | +1.4% | In band |
| NB-041 | Customer Success DirectorManchester | £95,000 | £92,000£84,000 to £103,000 (25th to 75th) | +3.3% | In band |
| NB-137 | Support Team LeadManchester | £58,000 | £55,000£50,000 to £61,000 (25th to 75th) | +5.5% | In band |
| NB-124 | Technical Support EngineerManchester | £52,000 | £45,000£41,000 to £50,000 (25th to 75th) | +15.6% | Above band |
| NB-142 | Renewals ManagerManchester | £64,000 | £55,000£48,000 to £62,000 (25th to 75th) | +16.4% | Above band |
What the agent would not guess at
Unmatched rows
14 rows were uploaded from northbank-customer-team-2026.csv and 12 were benchmarked. Two rows carried an internal title ("CS Guru", "Support Ninja") with no market equivalent. They are reported as unmatched rather than guessed at. Rename them to the job the person actually does and they benchmark on the next run.
Assumptions and limits (6)
- This is a saved sample report showing the shape of the agent's output. The bands are illustrative for a fictional employer, not a live market read, and they match the single-role example on this site so the two can be read together.
- “Below” means more than 10% under the market median for that title and location, “above” means more than 10% over it. Sitting inside the band is the expected outcome for most of a healthy payroll.
- Two rows could not be matched to a market role and are reported as unmatched. The agent does not guess at an internal title it does not recognise.
- The cost-to-fix figure lifts every below-band salary to 10% under its own market median, the smallest raise that brings it inside the band. It is a floor, not a pay strategy, and it excludes employer National Insurance and pension on the increase.
- Benchmarks are an input to a pay review. They do not account for performance, tenure, time in role, part-time hours or any contractual arrangement, and they are not an equal pay audit.
- Upload job titles, locations and salaries. Do not upload names, addresses, dates of birth or any other personal detail the benchmark does not need.
Why this matters
Benchmarking one role answers a question you already knew you had. The expensive gaps are the ones nobody has asked about: the person who has been in the seat for four years while the market moved past them, the two people doing the same job on different money, the new starter hired at a premium that nobody applied to the team around them. You find out about those at an exit interview, or in a pay review meeting where somebody has done their own research and you have not.
Read the rest of the background
Taligent's Payroll Benchmarking agent takes an employee list as a spreadsheet, benchmarks every row against its own market band, and reports the whole picture at once: how many people sit below, inside and above their band, the average gap against market median, and each row's individual position. You upload job title, location and salary. Names are not needed and should not be included, your own employee reference is enough to match a row back to a person at your end.
The example below is a fictional twelve-person customer team. Two of the fourteen uploaded rows carried internal job titles with no market equivalent and are reported as unmatched rather than guessed at, which is the honest outcome and the one you want: a confident benchmark for “Support Ninja” would be worth less than nothing.
Run this for your own role
Create a free account and Payroll Benchmarking works from your role, your requirements and your numbers. You start with 3 credits; each agent shows what a run costs before you start it.