Using the Geographic Assessor > Frequently Asked Questions

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Using the Geographic Assessor

1.Can I compare salaries in more than two cities at a time?

2.When I use the same Destination Location, the same earnings level, and different Base Cities, why do the values at the Destination Location change when the Base Location changes? Shouldn't the Destination Location values stay the same?

3.Who uses the Geographic Assessor?

4.What do the percentages displayed on the Two City Comparison Table mean?

5.What do the different structures mean? How can I view the structures?

6.My employee says that housing is much more expensive in the Base City or Destination City than the Geographic Assessor reports.

7.Why does the Miscellaneous value display as a negative number when I specify an international Base City?

8.Do tables other than the Two City Comparison table incorporate my user modifications to spending pattern assumptions?

9.The Two City Comparison Table effective income tax rates appear to have a reversed relationship. I know that my New York-Manhattan Base City should display a higher total effective income tax rate and yet, the Geographic Assessor reports that the Boca Raton, Florida Destination City has a higher tax cost. Florida doesn't even have a state income tax; what is going on?

10.Why do Two City Comparison table analyses of home ownership default to equal interest rates in the Base and Destination cities?

11.Then I enter an international Base City or an expensive US Base City, often the spending pattern exceeds the earnings level which I have specified, resulting in a negative miscellaneous value. Why does the program initially display such a disparity between the "Base City Total Cost of Living" and the "Base City Earnings Level"?

12.When I use the same Destination City, the same earnings level, and different Base Cities, why do the values at the Destination City change when the Base City changes? Shouldn't the Destination City values stay the same?

13.When running the Geographic Assessor, all of the destination city costs are based on the base city earnings. If you were to apply a COLA, how would you take into account the higher cost of living (including the effective tax for the higher earnings) in the new area?

14.If I set the automobile assumptions to Number Owned: 0, Total Value: 0 and Miles/Year: 0, why is there still an expense displayed in the Transportation row of the table?

15.What happens if I select "Never Use Tax Equalization" in the Options menu?

16.Can you use net income instead of annual gross in the Geographic Assessor?

17.Why does the home size (in square feet) change when I modify the Base location?

18.I'm looking for cost-of-living information for a city that is not included in the Geographic Assessor database. Should I just use the nearest city that is reported as a substitution?

19.I can't pull up international areas. I can only access US data.

20.Why is data missing for some of my locations in the Comparison List - COL?

21.Why does the home size (in square feet) change when I modify the Base location?

22.Why do the differentials vary by salary level?

23.What is the best salary level to use?

24.What location should be used as the base location?

Data Background Information

1.How do local sales and use taxes affect ERI costs of living differentials calculations?

2.How is cost of living calculated?

3.Does the Geographic Assessor Two City Comparison profile 'renter only' analyses?

4.Why is there a sharp decline in the salary differentials for areas in the UK (for example: Basingstoke, UK) as income levels increase?

5.How does GA determine the closest ERI city?

6.Why would GA not report COL values for some comparisons?

7.Why are there multiple cost-of-labor comparisons available for a city when the results are the same?

8.Why is the % of National Average COL missing in the Two City Comparison table?

9.Why does ERI report city and town-specific data when other sources provide metro and county average cost of living?

10.Is the Consumables category based on a basket of goods?

11.From where does your data for geographic transportation costs come, specifically gasoline costs?

12.How do local sales, use and value added taxes affect ERI cost of living differentials calculations?

13.Why are your COL calculations different from online calculators?

14.Why is the COL in international locations so high?

15.How is housing different in Canada than the US?

16.Why have COL differentials between locations gone up (or down)?

17.How is Cost of Living (COL) different from the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?

18.Can I see a comparison of the individual prices of the goods and services that you collect in each expenditure category?

19.List of the data sources used for the calculations in the cost of living differentials?

20.What is the difference between the Local and National Expenditure pattern?

21.Does the Geographic Assessor include estimates for closing costs and other one-time expenses?

22.Why does the COL percent differential decrease as Annual Earnings increase?

23.How can there be lower income + payroll taxes in California compared to Colorado for a renter?

24.We are relocating an employee from Bangalore, India, to Indianapolis, IN, with current annual earnings of $25,000. How can the cost of living be so much lower in Indianapolis when everyone knows that India is less expensive?

25.Where do you get your per diem rates? Can they be adjusted to reflect families?

FAQs Common to Multiple Assessor Series Applications

1.Where do the numbers for salaries and wages come from?

2.Where do the numbers for cost of living come from?

3.What is the difference between wage and cost-of-living differentials?

4.How is wage data compiled and how old is the survey data used in ERI analyses?

5.How is a "job" selected to be included in the Assessor Series? What is the wage and salary survey sample size? How do we know that a valid sample size was used to calculate the Assessor Series area wage differentials?

6.What salary surveys are used by ERI? Is there a way to find out which surveys are providing the data for a specific position in a specific geographic location?

7.We use ERI data in business valuation to assist with determining reasonable compensation for owners. In litigation, attorneys request the sources of the numbers and the size (number of incumbents) of the survey. Is there any way to find out how many respondents there are? Where do I find this information?

8.How is salary survey data weighted?

9.How does ERI reconcile weighted average and median pay data with position years of experience ranges when some salary surveys do not report years of experience?

10.What is statistical analysis and how is it applied to salary and wage data?

11.Can I use the Assessor Series data as evidence for expert witness work?

12.Why are there different types of job descriptions available in the Assessor Series applications?

13.Can you confirm that the Assessor Series wage data comes only from non-union employers?

14.What do the "Incentive" amounts represent?

15.From other surveys I have used, the exempt status of each job was included. Is this not an option with this application?

16.Is the salary/wage data normalized to a 2080-hour year?

17.For executive compensation analyses, can I change the organization size from Revenue to Fiscal Year Budget?

18.When I set the salary planning date backwards, the Annualized Salary Trend displayed is one value (for example 3.00%), but the "Adjustment", or pro-rata figure, is a completely different value (for example, -2.91%). Why are they different?

19.Why can't I find a certain position?

20.Do position descriptions include requirements for advanced degrees? Do the salaries found in the Assessor Series assume specific levels of education? I know what to pay someone with 13 years of experience, but how would I take into account that the person has a PhD?

21.How should I approach comparing pay in two different countries? Can I use Assessor Series data to compare a position in Canada with its counterpart the United States? If I'm trying to develop geographic differentials for my company's US branch offices, as well as some branch locations in other countries, how do I translate US pay levels for international offices?

22.How does ERI compute National Average values? An alternate source that I'm using shows a different salary for 'X City' and a different salary for the National Average. How do you explain this?

23.Why can we access the data only during the current release? I understand that you want your customers to access the most up-to-date data, but what if we wish to compare this release with data from the previous release?

24.We are looking at executive compensation in the Assessor Series products and have a question concerning revenue as to whether it is "gross" or "net"?

25.Do any of the Assessors have a separate component for "security clearance" in the salary amounts?

26.What is the difference between User-Defined and Manual Averages?

27.How high up in pay do geographic pay differentials extend?

28.Are commissions included in compensation for sales positions?

29.How do you define "assets"?

30.Why is the ERI Closest Matching City found in a ZIP code search different than the Post Office City listed?

31.How are data from multiple salary surveys combined in the Assessor Series?

32.Does ERI collect data on per visit compensation?

33.Does ERI report target sales compensation?

34.What is the relationship between executive cash compensation in privately-held versus publicly-traded companies?

35.Why is organization size important when analyzing compensation?

36.What do the "base salary" amounts represent?

37.What do the "total cash" amounts represent?

38.Why don't you show pay figures for all public jobs?

39.Why are results different when comparing the XA and CA?

40.How can I ensure that ZIP codes are formatted correctly in Excel for use in an Assessor Series application?

41.How is the COL Comparison List in the Geographic Assessor different from the COL Table by Earnings in the Relocation Assessor?

42.How often is ERI Assessor Series data updated?

43.Can I share lists with others on my account?

44.How is the city of London defined in the Assessors?

FAQs About ERI Economic Research Institute

1.What exactly does ERI do? What is the value of ERI's products to me?

2.How does your data compare with other firms who provide cost-of-living or wage and salary data?

3.What background regarding ERI can I share with management when discussing my organization's use of ERI data?

4.Which companies use ERI data?

5.What is different about ERI's products than those provided by major consulting firms?

6.Why do you sell your data on an annual subscription basis?

7.How do you keep your costs so low?

8.I'm having trouble using an ERI application. How can I contact ERI?