Variety of jobs, complex market influence pay ranges


How would you pay a group of people that includes: scientists, fire fighters, photographers, engineers, fitness trainers, machinists, teachers, drivers, painters, international relations specialists, computer experts, nurses, pilots, editors, welders, actuaries, and more? This is just a sampling of the wide range of jobs at Boeing around the world.

"Almost any type of job someone could think about doing, we have at Boeing," said Amy White, director of Global Compensation and Leadership Resource Planning. "With such a complex workforce, it is not feasible to have one single approach to pay. It is also the key reason why it is difficult to compare the company's pay—in aggregate—against a particular competitor. However, we do a significant amount of analysis at an industry level and the job level.

When your base pay increases, all the benefits that are tied to salary also increase, including pension, savings and life insurance.

The company reviews a variety of national compensation surveys, regional analyses, industry data and job category information on an annual basis to monitor competitiveness. We also benchmark ourselves against other major companies, including leaders in aerospace, manufacturing, and hightech industries. As the economy is in constant motion, so too are the company's activities to track current and emerging pay trends.

Each type of job has a variety of components, which influence its related pay range. The detailed behind-the-scenes work that goes into making sure compensation packages are competitive and matched to ever-changing job skills, performance levels, business needs and market conditions is significant. A team of compensation specialists—from across all business units—takes into account the needs of business units' operations both within and outside the United States.

"In measuring the competitiveness of base pay, many employees don't realize that 66 percent of all salaried job classifications, covering 80 percent of our U.S. workforce, are reviewed on an annual basis at the company level," said Angela Dellutri, manager of Competitive Pay and Delivery. "Given the size of Boeing's workforce, that's a huge task to do every year. We also do mid-year targeted studies of specific job groupings as market conditions change."

Adding to the variables in the mix—pay also has hundreds of legal and policy components including: overtime, shift differentials, sick leave, vacation and holidays, work scheduling, and so on. Boeing has a cross-company pay practices team that focuses on these issues.

Pay is just one component of the total compensation and benefit package featured in this special section of Frontiers. Boeing's compensation philosophy is to be fair and competitive in relation to the work being performed. "Our complex workforce is one reason why we are able to design, build and service complex products around the world," White added. "Our pay structures are designed to support our people, acknowledge their dedication and creativity, meet the changing needs of our business units, and keep pace with local markets and industry trends."