PayScale

John Gaffney Payscale was developed to help people and businesses obtain accurate, real-time information on job market compensation. While Payscale started by crowdsourcing compensation data from employees to power its products for employers, its Software as a Service offerings have evolved to allow businesses to utilize multiple compensation data sources, including Payscale's Crowdsourced and Company Sourced offerings as well as data from other providers. Customers can also manage their employee compensation strategy and structure within the platform and perform robust compensation analytics. For employees, the service works via the Internet by enabling individuals to submit their job profile and salary data, which is then compared to others like them. They receive a free report on their market worth.

The company generates revenue by selling SaaS subscriptions, compensation data and services to employers, to aid in determining correct market rates for hiring, benchmarking and budgeting, and by targeted advertising to employees that visit its website.

Payscale surveys its users' income and background, and since 2007, it has published an annual ranking of American colleges and universities by their estimated return on investment. The rankings have been popular with the public but controversial among scholars of higher education.

Payscale puts on an annual compensation industry event called Compference and publishes original research on compensation-related topics such as the gender pay gap, college return on investment and salary history.

In 2021, Payscale merged with Payfactors, a leading competitor. The new company operates under the Payscale brand. Later that year, Payscale acquired pay equity and compensation management company CURO. In 2022, Payscale acquired Agora, a software development company focused on pay transparency and employee experience.