Compensation and leveling

Compensation touches employment law, pay transparency requirements, and equal pay obligations that vary by jurisdiction. Structural work here is fine; specific decisions about individuals should be reviewed by qualified counsel or an HR professional.

Leveling first

Pay structure without a leveling framework produces negotiated salaries, and negotiated salaries produce inequity that correlates with who negotiates hardest.

Define each level by scope and impact, not tenure or task list:

• What ambiguity can they handle — a defined task, a defined problem, an undefined problem, a problem nobody has identified?
• What is the blast radius of their decisions — their work, their team, the function, the company?
• What do they do for others: execute, contribute, guide, or set direction?