A good strategy isn’t built on guesses. Download the new 2026 Compensation Trends Report—including merit updates, equity grants, and more

Empower leaders to make great merit cycle decisions

Run merit cycles with confidence using compensation planning software with centralized budgets, clear guidelines, and real-time market data.

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Intelligent Controls

Drive leaders toward smarter pay decisions

Reinforce your compensation philosophy with built-in guardrails to reduce costly mistakes, limit exceptions, and ensure every pay decision aligns with policy and budget.

Support for Your Team

Simple, intuitive cycles for everyone

Make the compensation planning process easier to run and easier to complete. Flexible worksheet views, shared visibility, and contextual collaboration tools help teams move through cycles smoothly, reduce errors, and avoid last-minute scrambles.

Manager Experience

Make compensation planning easier for leaders

Give managers the clarity and confidence to recommend pay with ease. Intuitive workflows and built-in guidance help leaders understand decisions, communicate outcomes clearly, and stand behind every recommendation.

End-to-end Customization

Customize every component for the workflow of your dreams

Every company has unique needs, and Pave is built to support yours. Create custom columns and planning windows, build flexible top-down and bottom-up budgets, white-label your reward letters, and more.

In-depth Cycle Analytics

Real-time, flexible analysis with live visualizations

Make every compensation planning decision smarter with analytics that connect directly to your merit cycles. Built-in analytics give compensation teams real-time visibility into cycle progress, budget utilization, and outcomes. With clear insights throughout the compensation planning process, teams can course-correct early, stay on budget, and confidently present recommendations to leadership.

Customer Testimonials

Accelerate your pay decisions with Pave

Don't take our word for it. Listen to what our happy customers have to say about using real-time compensation data, predictive machine learning, and insight-infused workflows to perfect the art and science of pay.

When it comes to pay, Pave is now the single source of truth for our employees, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In the many years I've been here, this is the first time I've seen our employees in water cooler chats and Slack channels saying, ‘This is absolutely awesome.' This never happens with HR tools. Pave is a big success for us.
Elle Xing
Director, Compensation
Pave's Compensation Planning module has been most helpful for us. When all the elements tie together and it’s set up properly, particularly permissioning, the ability to ensure the right people can see the right things is fantastic. It’s a much, much better process than anything we could do with spreadsheets—and we did try (it was not pretty).
Jacob Wallenberg
VP, People & Talent
The real-time nature of Pave’s Market Data tool, in addition to the relevancy our selected data cut, instills deep trust from Clio’s leadership team. Knowing that companies in Pave’s dataset are similar in size, structure, and industry to Clio is a big win for the team. Our leadership has a ton of confidence in the tool, which is great and helps us move faster.
Yvonne Liu
Sr. Manager, Compensation
Pave has streamlined our entire compensation process, enabling us to enhance transparency, drive employee engagement, and improve retention. With Pave’s data-driven approach, we’ve been able to make more strategic decisions around compensation, which has had a direct impact on our company's growth and ability to retain top talent.
Evan Salisbury
VP, Total Rewards & People Support
Ultimately, what Market Pricing from Pave enabled me to do is free up seven weeks of time to focus on pre-planning with business partners, leaders, and managers. Once the cycle started, I had very few managers take me up on office hours. There was so much done ahead of time, I was able to have key consultations finished two months earlier.
Neil Pfeiffer
Sr. Manager, Compensation
I really appreciate, and increasingly rely on, Pave’s real-time compensation insights. In particular, the ability to easily filter for relevant peer datasets ensures our team always stays informed and can remain agile. In my opinion, real-time data pulled directly from HR systems is the new model for keeping track of an always dynamic talent market.
Leah Springer
Director, Compensation
"When it comes to pay, Pave is now the single source of truth for our employees, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In the many years I've been here, this is the first time I've seen our employees in water cooler chats and Slack channels saying, ‘This is absolutely awesome.' This never happens with HR tools. Pave is a big success for us.”
Elle Xing
Director, Compensation
"Pave's Compensation Planning module has been most helpful for us. When all the elements tie together and it’s set up properly, particularly permissioning, the ability to ensure the right people can see the right things is fantastic. It’s a much, much better process than anything we could do with spreadsheets—and we did try (it was not pretty)."
Jacob Wallenberg
VP, People & Talent
“Ultimately, what Market Pricing from Pave enabled me to do is free up seven weeks of time to focus on pre-planning with business partners, leaders, and managers. Once the cycle started, I had very few managers take me up on office hours. There was so much done ahead of time, I was able to have key consultations finished two months earlier.”
Neil Pfeiffer
Sr. Manager, Compensation
"The real-time nature of Pave’s Market Data tool, in addition to the relevancy our selected data cut, instills deep trust from Clio’s leadership team. Knowing that companies in Pave’s dataset are similar in size, structure, and industry to Clio is a big win for the team. Our leadership has a ton of confidence in the tool, which is great and helps us move faster.”
Yvonne Liu
Sr. Manager, Compensation
"Pave has streamlined our entire compensation process, enabling us to enhance transparency, drive employee engagement, and improve retention. With Pave’s data-driven approach, we’ve been able to make more strategic decisions around compensation, which has had a direct impact on our company's growth and ability to retain top talent."
Evan Salisbury
VP, Total Rewards & People Support
"I really appreciate, and increasingly rely on, Pave’s real-time compensation insights. In particular, the ability to easily filter for relevant peer datasets ensures our team always stays informed and can remain agile. In my opinion, real-time data pulled directly from HR systems is the new model for keeping track of an always dynamic talent market."
Leah Springer
Director, Compensation
More Solutions

Create an end-to-end ecosystem with Pave

Explore the Pave Platform
Market Data Pro

Access real-time compensation data from 8,000+ companies, powered by predictive machine learning, to benchmark pay with confidence.

Market Pricing & Pay Ranges

Use automation and machine learning to analyze compensation data from multiple sources to price jobs with ease and build competitive pay ranges.

Compensation Planning

Deliver your next merit cycle on time and on budget with elegant workflows that allow you to manage, drive, and analyze pay decisions in real-time.

Total Rewards Portal

Engage your employees with dynamic, always-on total rewards portals that communicate the full value of your investment in people.

Visual Offer Letter

Enhance candidate and recruiter experiences, and build your employer brand, with dynamic offer letters that impress.

Plans & Pricing

Powerful solutions for every stage of growth

Whether you're a startup in a garage or a global enterprise with more than 50,000 people, Pave has the solutions you need to drive business results. Compare our offerings to begin transforming your compensation ecosystem.

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Free Compensation Data

Market Data Lite

Companies with 1-200 employees can now integrate with Pave for free to access base salary and new hire equity benchmarks.

Sign up for free
Premium Compensation Data

Market Data Pro

Plug into enterprise-grade compensation data and predictive insights designed for total rewards professionals.

Book a demo
Compensation Software

Workflows

Transform your compensation ecosystem with powerful workflows that ensure every pay decision adds business value.

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Dive deeper into the Pave platform

Discover how our transparent methodologies, numerous integrations and industry-leading security and privacy protections make Pave safe and easy to use.

Integrations
Pave API
Methodology
Security & Privacy
Plans & Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is compensation planning software?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Compensation planning software helps organizations plan, manage, and execute pay decisions across merit cycles, promotions, and equity programs. It centralizes budgets, guidelines, and market data so teams can make consistent, defensible compensation decisions.

What's the difference between compensation planning software and compensation management software?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Compensation planning software supports businesses with the tasks associated with adjusting pay, such as running annual merit cycles, allocating equity grants and bonuses, and sending reward letters. Compensation management software is broader, and includes tools for ongoing compensation strategy workflows like salary benchmarking, pricing jobs, managing pay ranges, and total rewards communication. While the two terms are very similar, many modern platforms like Pave handle both.

What are the key benefits of compensation planning software?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Compensation planning software can help compensation teams shift from administrative data entry to strategic, data-driven decision-making. These solutions help reduce time spent actively running compensation cycles by eliminating spreadsheet-based processes and automating workflows, while also providing budget control to prevent overspending. Real-time analytics track budgets and timelines, and transparency tools improve employee trust and retention.

What features should you look for in compensation planning software?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Compensation planning software should automate compensation cycles for merit increases, promotions, equity refreshes, and bonuses while providing budget management tools to track spending. Look for solutions that offer real-time compensation data and salary and equity benchmarking to understand how your pay compares to your peers. While the needs of every business are unique, some essential features include seamless HRIS integration, customizable approval workflows, and employee communication tools.

What compensation management software is best for small businesses?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

When it comes to compensation management software, small businesses employees should prioritize solutions that offer quick implementation and ease of use. Focus on essential features like basic equity and salary benchmarking, merit cycle management, and budget tracking. Since small teams rarely have dedicated compensation specialists, quality customer support is also critical. If you plan to scale, look for platforms like Pave that offer more sophisticated solutions you can add on as your business grows.

How often should companies run compensation planning?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Most companies run annual compensation planning cycles, but many also plan throughout the year for promotions, new hires, and equity adjustments. Ongoing compensation planning helps organizations stay aligned with market changes and internal growth.

How can professionals create a compensation plan?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Creating a compensation plan starts with defining pay philosophy, budget constraints, and market benchmarks. From there, companies set ranges, apply guidelines, and review recommendations to ensure decisions are fair, competitive, and aligned with business goals.

Why is compensation planning important for businesses?
How can I get set up for the Startup Program?

Compensation planning helps businesses attract and retain talent while maintaining budget control and internal equity. It also builds trust by ensuring pay decisions are consistent, transparent, and backed by reliable data.

Maximize the impact of every pay decision with Pave

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