PayWizard – salary checker for employees

The idea behind this website (run jointly by the TUC and IDS) is simple enough. It allows you to check your salary and compare it with the wages of other people doing a similar job, without having to ask the person who works next to you. And if you’re thinking of changing direction in your career, PayWizard lets you look at pay rates for hundreds of different jobs in all walks of life - private sector, public sector and not-for-profit. All for free.

What is it?

Started four years ago in the Netherlands, PayWizard is part of an international research network. It was set up by the FNV trade union and the University of Amsterdam to help women compare their earnings with those of men doing similar work. It has since grown into a free service available to, and used by, people in all manner of jobs - nurses, lathe operators and bankers alike.

With EU funding, the network now encompasses seven other European countries - the UK, Germany, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Italy - and has already launched in India and China. New projects are underway in Russia, Brazil, South Africa and the USA.

The system in each country is the same. Together, a national trade union and a research institute set up and maintain a website. In the UK, the partners are the TUC - the national Trade Union Congress - and IDS.

How does it work?

PayWizard relies on people in all parts of the country, in all sorts of different jobs, to give information about their pay and conditions. For your security, there are two important safeguards – the data is completely anonymous and you won’t be asked the name of your employer. Unlike other similar services, the information is statistically ‘weighted’ and validated before it is fed into to the database, to help make it more reliable.

All you need to do is fill in the online survey. It won’t take you more than 10 minutes. In return for letting PayWizard know about your pay, you find out about thousands of other people’s pay.

Now take a look at www.paywizard.co.uk