Overview

Pave Market Data is a compensation benchmarking product for employers setting pay across roles and markets. It is best suited to teams prepared to connect their HR systems and seeking salary, cash-compensation, and equity comparisons. Its broad coverage and monthly refreshes are compelling; mandatory integrations and custom-priced Pro access narrow its appeal.

Key features

Pave draws data through ongoing HRIS, ATS, and equity-management connections, collects it daily, and publishes benchmarks monthly. Machine learning maps employee records to its job architecture before aggregation and de-identification. This gives compensation teams a consistent basis for comparing roles, though the published benchmarks update monthly rather than daily.

Coverage spans more than 200 job families and includes base salary, bonus and variable pay, total cash compensation, and new-hire and ongoing equity. Pro adds benchmarks across more than 55 countries and 90 cities or metros, plus custom peer groups, advanced equity data, and customized reports. That package is more useful to organizations making cross-market or specialized-role decisions than to employers needing only a narrow domestic comparison.

Market Data requires customers to connect HR platforms, including HRIS, ATS, and equity-management systems. Supported HRIS providers include ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, and Workday. The breadth of supported providers helps, but the connection requirement remains a poor fit for companies unable or unwilling to link these systems. Pave says the resulting data is aggregated and de-identified, and users cannot access competitor-specific compensation data.

Pave states that it is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified and SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 compliant. Its help center offers searchable answers and support tickets.

Pricing

Market Data Lite is free and is limited to startups with 1–200 employees. It provides the overall U.S. market plus one additional market, making it a useful starting point for eligible smaller companies, but not a substitute for broad global coverage.

Market Data Pro has custom pricing. It includes global benchmarks, advanced reports, peer groups, advanced equity data, and customized reports. Pave describes Pro as an enterprise-oriented product while making it available to all companies; the absence of a fixed price means buyers must obtain a quote to assess fit. The strongest reason to pay for Pro is its expanded geography and comparison tools, rather than simply access to the core benchmark categories.

Platforms

Pave Market Data runs on the web. Access requires connected HR platforms, so a web interface alone does not make it a standalone option for organizations that cannot provide the required workforce-system connections.

Who it's for

Market Data Lite fits startups with 1–200 employees that need U.S. benchmarks and one additional market. Pro is better suited to compensation teams working across countries or cities, comparing custom peer groups, or analyzing equity in greater depth. Employers seeking real-time published figures, a fixed Pro price, or benchmarking without HR-system connections should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

Pros

More than 200 job families and multiple cash and equity measures give teams a wide basis for pay decisions.
Daily collection and monthly publication provide a recurring refresh cycle.
Pro adds global reach, custom peer groups, advanced equity data, and tailored reports.
Eligible startups can begin with free benchmarks covering the U.S. and one additional market.

Cons

Required HR-platform connections rule out teams that cannot or do not want to connect HRIS, ATS, and equity systems.
Pro is custom-priced, making the cost harder to evaluate before requesting a quote.
Lite is restricted to startups with 1–200 employees and only two markets in total.
Benchmarks publish monthly, so the product does not provide daily published updates.

Alternatives

For a broad starting point, compare Salary Benchmarking Software. Teams evaluating wider pay programs can also review Compensation Management Software, Pay Transparency Software, Workforce Planning Software, and Total Rewards Software.

Aon Radford McLagan Compensation Database is worth considering when you need benchmarking participation tailored from one country to multi-market decisions and 24/7 platform access; its fees vary by need.
PayPulse is another paid option with a free plan and web and API platforms.
SalaryCube may suit qualifying startups and small businesses seeking benchmarking modules for a published starting price of 1995.00 USD per year; it also offers a free trial.
Culpepper Compensation Surveys is an alternative with jobs and countries tailored to the organization.
Payscale Salary Benchmarking offers Core and Premier plans, with custom reporting and certain datasets as Core add-ons.
Salary.com CompXL is an alternative when you are willing to get pricing through a personalized demo.
CompAce may fit teams seeking compensation management alongside benchmarking, with Starter at 1250.00 AUD per month for up to 250 employees.
Compensation IQ offers a free plan and annual paid options, including global salary benchmarking.

Verdict

Pave Market Data is a strong choice for compensation teams that can connect their HR platforms and need recurring benchmarks across broad job-family, pay-component, and geographic coverage. Choose Lite if your startup fits the 1–200 employee limit and its two-market scope; choose Pro when peer groups, global reach, and advanced equity justify a custom quote. If HR connections are a blocker or a fixed Pro price is essential, look elsewhere.

	Mercer WIN	Pave Market Data
Free plan		Yes
Paid from		Free
Platforms	Web	Web
Data geography	global	global
Job matching	Yes	Yes
Custom peer groups	Yes	Yes
Free plan		Yes
Data refresh		monthly
Compensation planning		Yes
Budget variance tracking		Yes

Mercer WIN vs Pave Market Data

Mercer WIN

Pave Market Data