Tying pay to tasks and titles, not inflated job labels

Executive overview

Title creep — where employees hold inflated titles — causes pay expectations to outpace the actual work required. The fix is to anchor compensation to tasks and projects first, then assign an appropriate title, then benchmark pay to that role.

Match the title to the work, then price the work — not the title.

Setting compensation correctly

• List every task and project on the person's scorecard before discussing pay
• Assign a title that reflects that workload, not seniority aspirations
• C-level titles once required major-org seniority — most roles today don't qualify
• Benchmark pay against industry norms for the correctly scoped title

Using tiered levels within a role

• Create three sub-levels per role (e.g. Director of Sales 1, 2, 3) before promoting to VP
• Tiered levels give clear progression without inflating titles prematurely
• Compensation is tied to level attained, not the label the employee wants