What you can put to work
From the next conversation to a working document.
Build a usable band table
Map six levels to overlapping bands, then decide how market data, geography and equity fit your policy.
Explain the number
Use four zones within each band to make raises and exceptions understandable.
Check cost and approvals
Compare annualized and remaining-period base-pay costs with budget limits, review equity findings and record sign-off.
Editable templates included
Band table, compensation records, equity checks, budget planning and approvals, plus market references, salary history, market decisions and a worked budget example.
Where to start
Agree the policy and budget assumptions with People and Finance teams. Review the dated geographic references, approve your own base-pay inputs and inspect the bands and work through the budget example before entering live proposals.
Across the three workbooks
Run the cycle with People and Finance teams.
Functional leaders
Define strong work, bring the evidence and own the development commitments.
People
Make standards consistent, connect values to behavior and give disputed evidence a clear review route.
Finance
Agree the limits, compare proposed and approved costs, and reconcile the decision before release.
One case, from assessment to action
Follow a fictional team through calibration, a pay proposal that exceeds the period budget, an approved timing change and a development plan with protected time.
Keep the assessment honest
A funding constraint produces a documented pay decision and effective date. It does not rewrite the evidence about someone’s work.
Written by Renato Valdés-Olmos
Built from running the cycle.
I have run leveling, compensation and development cycles at companies of 25, 250 and 2500 people. These workbooks turn those mechanics into documents you can use with your team. The shared six-level framework is new in v1.
More about my work
One complete chapter · No email required
Read section two.
02Bands: how many, how wide, how much they overlap
One band per level. Six levels, six bands, in every lane. The temptation is to add sub-bands, steps, or half-levels so that a raise can be given without a promotion; resist it, because every sub-band is a level the leveling document does not know about, and it will be used as one within a year.
Width
The widths below are a starting table, inside the conventional range, and not a finding; set them once, from your own market cut, and hold them. A band's width is the ratio of its top to its bottom. Too narrow and there is no room to reward a person who is holding the level well without promoting them. Too wide and two people at the same level can be paid so differently that the band means nothing.
| Level | Width (top ÷ bottom) | Why that width |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.25 | People move through it fast; a wide band here is unspent. |
| 2 | 1.30 | The first level people hold for a while. Room for two or three real raises. |
| 3 | 1.35 | The widest population. Needs the most room to differentiate without promoting. |
| 4 | 1.40 | Long tenures at this level are normal and should not be punished. |
| 5 | 1.45 | Few people, large variance in scope. The band has to hold both a platform principal and a product principal. |
| 6 | 1.50 | Individually negotiated in practice; the band is a boundary, not a target. |
Overlap
Adjacent bands overlap. The top of level 3 is above the bottom of level 4, by design. This is what allows a promotion to happen without a large raise when somebody is already at the top of their band, and it is what allows a strong person at level 3 to out-earn a new arrival at level 4 without anybody being wrong.
| Overlap | Meaning |
|---|---|
| None | Every promotion is a large raise, so promotions are argued for the money. Avoid. |
| 10 to 20 percent | The working range. A promotion from the top of one band lands in the lower-middle of the next. |
| More than 30 percent | Review whether the overlap fits the intended differentiation and local market. The percentage alone does not establish that a level is wrong. |
Six bands, drawn
Each bar is a band, bottom to top, on one pay axis. Widths grow with level; each bar starts inside the one below it, which is the overlap. A promotion from the top of one band lands in the lower-middle of the next, and a strong level 3 can sit above a new level 4 without either being wrong.
The first year, for a company with no bands
Most companies adopting this have a spreadsheet of numbers, each of which made sense on the day it was agreed, and no bands. The first year is not a repricing. Publish the bands. Hold every existing number where it is. Let the zones absorb the corrections: a person above their band is held, not cut, and drifts back to the top of it over two cycles as the band moves and they do not; a person below their band is moved to the entering zone at the first comp cycle, and that is the one set of raises the first year has to fund. Nobody's number goes down because a table appeared. Say that sentence out loud before the table is published, because it is the sentence everyone is waiting for.
Setting the midpoints
Use the level-3 midpoint as an anchor and inspect the steps above and below it. The illustrative 20 to 30 percent steps in the spreadsheet show how midpoint progression and width interact. People and Finance should compare the resulting bands with dated role and market evidence, then document any changes to steps, widths or differentials. The illustration does not prescribe a market rate or a universal overlap target.
Illustrations, not market benchmarks
The widths, midpoint steps, overlap ranges, lane differentials and geographic multipliers in this workbook are examples for examining the mechanics. They are not current salary survey results or universal policy. People and Finance must replace them with dated evidence for the relevant roles and locations, record the chosen market position and approve the assumptions. An overlap threshold is a review signal, not proof that a level has no meaning.
Choose what you need
Start with a workbook, or use the whole set.
Leveling
For EPD leaders building one credible standard across Engineering, Product, Research and Design, with People as the partner who makes it fair and durable.
Compensation
For CFOs and Finance teams setting pay for Engineering, Product, Research and Design, with EPD leaders supplying the role and market evidence behind every decision.
Development
For Engineering, Product, Research and Design leaders and People teams to run together: turn review evidence into funded growth work, protected time and explicit manager commitments.
The new standard
Leveling, compensation and development in the age of AI.
A shared standard for levels, pay and growth. All three workbooks, their printable documents, 24 editable templates and reference sheets, plus three worked examples. Save $18 compared with buying separately.
$117$99
Team license
All three workbooks and their templates for one leadership team or function at one company. Already bought a single copy? Its price is credited toward the team license. License details.
Enterprise license
Company-wide or multi-division use, with a license and rollout scope agreed for your organization. Suitable when procurement, legal, security or implementation support needs to be part of the purchase. License details.
From $2,500
Contact about enterpriseBefore you buy
A few practical questions.
What do I receive?
The workbook unlocks on this site. You also get a printable pdf and editable .xlsx templates. The set includes all three workbooks and their templates. These are digital downloads; no physical book is shipped.
Do I need the other workbooks?
This workbook applies the six-level standard defined in Leveling. Start with Leveling, or get the set, if your team has not adopted that standard.
Does Compensation include salary guidance by geography?
Yes. The September 2026 reference includes 71 public salary and total-compensation ranges across 33 selected geographies, with dedicated coverage for Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as the Bay Area, New York, the US and Europe. Coverage varies by role. It also explains how to handle frontier-AI offers that break an existing band. Every range carries a source and date. Total compensation, advertised salaries and wages are kept separate; matched base-pay inputs still need approval before budgeting.
What does the budget model cover?
Base-pay increases for existing employees in one currency, plus an explicit employer on-cost rate. Compare annualized and remaining-period costs with separate limits. Bonus, benefit changes, hiring, departures, foreign exchange and equity need separate costing. The workbook explains how to record the scope and approvals.
How do I get access?
After checkout, an email goes to the address you paid with. Its private reader link opens the complete workbook. You can also open the reader from this page and enter the access key from the email. The sample remains a separate public chapter.
Can I use it with my team?
A single purchase covers one person, with sharing permitted with your own manager and managers who report to you while running a cycle. The $499 team license covers one leadership team or function at one company. Company-wide or multi-division use needs an enterprise license. A single purchase can be credited toward the team license. Read the license.
What if we need an enterprise rollout?
Enterprise licenses start at $2,500 for company-wide or multi-division use, procurement requirements and an agreed rollout scope. Contact me with your company, approximate audience, countries and timing for a quote.
Can I get a refund?
Read the complete sample chapter before buying. Because the workbook, PDF and editable files are delivered immediately, checkout asks you to acknowledge that the purchase becomes final when digital access begins. Duplicate charges, persistent access failures, material differences from the description and mandatory legal remedies remain covered. Read the access and refund terms.
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Every revision of v1 is included and sent to the address you paid with. Your purchase does not subscribe you to the essay newsletter.
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Make pay decisions you can explain.
Finance owns the envelope and release controls; Engineering, Product, Research and Design leaders own the role and scarce-capability evidence. Together they can make EPD pay decisions the company can afford and explain.
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