How are Oyster’s pay bands established?
Pay Bands at Oyster are established based on the Oyster Band Index (OBI) of each country. OBIs are classified into High, Mid, and Low.
- For High OBI countries, we aim for mid-market salaries, at 50th percentile
- For Mid OBI countries, we target above mid-market salaries, at 75th percentile
- For Low OBI countries, we target top of market salaries, at 90th percentile
Our approach was developed to first and foremost be in service of our mission - to create a more equal world by making it possible for companies everywhere to hire people anywhere. If widely adopted, we believe that this model would lead towards a world where someone could expect the same salary for the same work (i.e. geographically agnostic salary).
What is the Oyster Band Index (OBI)?
It is Oyster’s proprietary scoring system used to determine which group (High, Mid, or Low) to pin a specific country’s salary benchmark to. It determines whether a country is considered a high, mid or low depending on the Cost of Living and other specific country data. We get some of this data from Numbeo, and our OBI methodology takes this and other indicators into account when plotting countries along the spectrum.
What kinds of market data informed these bands?
We use a comprehensive dataset including Oyster’s own global employee and team member salary information to inform our model. This model generates bands in locations where pay data is either limited or non-existent.
How does the cost of living inform Oyster’s pay bands?
We use publicly available cost of living data to inform our OBI scores (explained above). These scores are then used to decide the suitable percentile for applying to the salary range in the local market of a specific country.
For a more in-depth explanation, read the complete Oyster's Compensation Approach 1.0.