How To Know If You're Being Underpaid: 9 Tools For Salary Benchmarking

If you suspect you’re being underpaid, you’re not alone—countless professionals wrestle with this concern. The good news? There are proven ways to determine whether your compensation truly falls short of industry standards. By leveraging the right resources, you can make an informed decision about your career trajectory and earning potential.

Why Salary Benchmarking Matters More Than Ever

The wage landscape continues to shift, and staying informed about your market value is crucial. According to ZipRecruiter, the average industry standard hourly wage in the U.S. stood at $18.56 an hour in mid-2025, with actual pay ranging from $17.31 at the 25th percentile to $20.91 at the 75th percentile. However, these figures tell only part of the story. Your actual compensation depends heavily on your education level, professional skills, years of experience, and geographic location.

Understanding where your salary sits relative to comparable positions isn’t just about validating your worth—it’s about building the evidence you’ll need if you decide to pursue a raise, seek a promotion, or explore other opportunities.

Red Flags: When You Should Conduct a Salary Review

Before diving into comparison tools, recognize the warning signs that often indicate you may be undercompensated. You might be underpaid if your salary has remained stagnant while your responsibilities have grown, if newly hired colleagues are earning more than you for similar work, or if your company has seen strong profits without sharing gains with employees. Additionally, if your last raise occurred years ago and hasn’t kept pace with inflation or career progression benchmarks, it’s time to investigate your market value.

The 9 Best Tools To Compare Your Compensation

There are numerous platforms available to help you assess whether you’re being offered fair compensation relative to your industry. Here’s a detailed breakdown of each resource:

Glassdoor

Glassdoor remains one of the most comprehensive platforms for salary data, job listings, and company reviews. What makes it particularly valuable is that salary information is submitted anonymously, giving you candid insights from current and former employees. The platform aggregates data in user-friendly formats, making it easy to see salary ranges for specific roles at specific companies.

Levels.fyi

For professionals in tech and other specialized fields, Levels.fyi stands out because it collects verified salary submissions. Unlike some platforms that may include outdated or inaccurate data, Levels.fyi emphasizes verification, allowing you to see what others at your career level are actually earning. This makes it invaluable for leveling up in your career and understanding what competitive compensation looks like.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

If you don’t mind navigating spreadsheets and detailed datasets, the BLS site is an authoritative resource. It provides comprehensive wage data and job characteristics for over 800 occupations across more than 400 industries at the national level. Beyond national figures, it breaks down salary information by all 50 states and across 395 metropolitan areas, plus 130 nonmetropolitan regions. For a definitive government perspective on your field, BLS is unmatched.

Reddit Communities

While Reddit shouldn’t be your sole source, the platform hosts vibrant communities where actual professionals candidly discuss salaries, career progression, and job satisfaction. These discussions often provide real-world context—including company culture, work-life balance implications, and honest assessments of whether compensation matches the role’s demands. Use it to supplement data from more formal sources.

Professional Associations

Industry-specific organizations offer targeted salary data alongside valuable networking and career development resources. For example, if you’re a dental assistant questioning whether your current pay is competitive, the American Dental Association’s Dental Workforce Wages and Job Count Dashboard provides state-level earnings data and employment trends specifically for dental professionals. Most established fields have similar associations worth consulting.

O*NET

This often-overlooked resource deserves more attention for its exceptional user-friendliness and comprehensive career information. Beyond salary comparisons, O*NET’s “My Next Move” feature is particularly innovative—you can search by answering “I want to be a…” to explore specific careers, “I’ll know it when I see it…” to browse available roles, or “I’m not really sure…” to uncover career paths matching your interests. It’s excellent for not just benchmarking current roles but exploring lateral or upward moves.

Payscale

Payscale offers sophisticated compensation tools backed by data from over 45 million active salary profiles across more than 31,000 cities worldwide. Its database is one of the largest available, making it particularly useful if you want granular, location-specific compensation data. You can filter by company size, years of experience, and specific skills to narrow down your comparisons.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Federal employees have a dedicated resource in OPM, which publishes current salary tables for government positions along with information about hiring practices, work schedules, and leave policies. If you’re considering a government career or already work in the federal sector, this is your benchmark. The detailed pay scales can also help you assess whether a move to the private sector might increase your earnings.

Indeed

As the world’s largest employment website, Indeed combines massive job listings with powerful salary search functionality. Its job reports and salary insights provide real-time market data, making it useful both for active job seekers and those simply curious about their market value. You can find salary information for nearly any role within a couple of clicks.

How To Use These Tools Effectively

Don’t just collect data—synthesize it. Visit multiple platforms and note the salary ranges you find for your specific role, experience level, and location. Look for patterns and outliers. If eight sources suggest your role pays $65,000-$75,000 but one site shows $95,000, investigate why before accepting the outlier figure. Cross-reference tools like BLS with platforms like Glassdoor to validate trends.

Additionally, consider the timing of the data. Some platforms update more frequently than others, so prioritize recent submissions when available. Account for variables like company size, growth stage, and geographic cost of living—a salary that’s competitive in one market might be below average in another.

Taking Action: What To Do After Benchmarking

Once you’ve confirmed you’re being underpaid, you have options. Armed with solid data from multiple credible sources, you’re positioned to either request a raise with supporting evidence or explore positions at companies paying market rates. Document which tools you consulted and note the salary ranges they reported—this becomes your negotiation toolkit.

Whether you choose to stay and advocate for better compensation or move on to a new opportunity, knowing your market value removes ambiguity from the conversation. The tools above make it easier than ever to ensure you’re being compensated fairly for your skills and experience.