They categorize jobs based on internal equity. The number of Career Levels varies by employer and sometimes they are called Job Levels.

They are not the same as pay grades. They are not attached to competitive market data or base salary ranges. This means that jobs with the same Career Level can have different pay grades.

Usually, the Career Levels are assigned to jobs based on a Career Level Guide which is a document that describes the difference between the levels. The Guide provides a standard description, so the use of the levels is consistent across job families.

The differences are based on factors such as scope, knowledge, accountability, discretion, complexity, interaction, supervision, experience, education/training, autonomy, etc.

The Career Levels often differentiate between individual contributor, management, and executive jobs.

The job description for a job is compared to the Career Level Guide to determine which Career Level should be assigned to a job.

Career Levels in conjunction with job families provide employers with career paths that can be used in development conversations with employees.

Some employers use the Career Level Guides in salary surveys as their standard description of the levels. And other employers write custom Career Level Guides.

If you are going to do a pay equity audit, Career Levels will help you develop comparator groups for the statistical analysis.

Your pay transparency strategy will benefit from the use of Career Levels as well because they answer the questions that all employees care about: “How does my job compare to John’s job? What makes John’s job a higher level than mine?”

If you’ve been meaning to define your Career Levels and want to implement this aspect of Job Architecture, let’s talk.

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