Compensation Studies

PRIMARY CONTACT: Joel Rosenthal CPA, CVA (Pittsburgh)

The Business Advisory team at Schneider Downs partners with management, boards and compensation committees to provide market compensation data to aid in an organization’s compensation setting process.  A well-developed compensation plan attracts talent, improves retention and encourages employee engagement.

We have served both for-profit and not-for-profit clients in a variety of industries and can perform a compensation analysis for a particular position or for an organization’s entire workforce. 

A compensation study involves benchmarking an entity’s selected job positions to what similar entities are paying for similar positions.  Factors such as geographic area, industry and company size are considered.

We can also provide an analysis of the mix of executive pay, which entails a breakdown between base compensation, short-term incentive compensation, long-term incentive compensation and other compensation. 

Not-for-Profit Organizations

Not-for-profit organizations are subject to additional regulations that for-profit organizations are not.  If the compensation of certain individuals is deemed unreasonable by the IRS, intermediate sanctions might be imposed on the recipient, as well as those persons who approved it.

However, the IRS also provides a safe harbor to not-for-profit organizations:  the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness.  We can provide compensation data specific to the requirements of the rebuttable presumption.

We can also provide training at your compensation committee meetings in order to ensure that all board members have the knowledge to create a rebuttable presumption that a transaction is not an excess benefit transaction.

Ancillary Services

Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors provides other executive compensation and non-qualified deferred compensation planning services to our clients.