Create and manage Peer Groups in Market Data

What are Peer Groups?

Peer Groups let you benchmark compensation against a specific set of companies you choose, rather than relying on broad filters like industry or company stage. You select the companies you actually compete with for talent, and Pave generates benchmark data scoped to that group.

Peer Groups are available to Market Data Pro customers. Market Data Lite customers will see a Peer Groups option with an upgrade prompt.

If you want to reuse a combination of company attributes, such as headcount and industry, rather than a list of specific companies, use saved filters instead. You can use a saved filter or a Peer Group, but not both at the same time. See the article on saving filters in Market Data for details.

Peer Group requirements

Peer Groups have structural rules designed to protect data integrity and produce meaningful benchmarks:

• Minimum 15 companies per group
• Maximum 100 companies per group
• Balanced concentration. Pave checks the concentration of employees among companies in the Peer Group. If the group is too concentrated, Pave will ask you to add more companies to balance it before saving. This precaution is designed to prevent users from gaming Peer Groups to identify pay from specific companies.
• Each group must differ from your other active groups by at least 3 companies. This prevents overlapping groups from producing near-identical benchmarks.
• Maximum 20 active Peer Groups per account

The creation flow shows you in real time whether your current selection meets these rules.

Create a Peer Group

To create a Peer Group, you need Market Data Pro and a role with edit access to the Peer Groups permission. The default Admin role includes this permission.

1. In Market Data, open the Create peer group window in one of these ways:

   • Open the saved filter picker in the upper left, select the Peer groups tab, and select Manage and create. In the Manage peer groups window, select Add new.
   • If you haven't applied any filters, saved filters, or Peer Groups yet, select Benchmark against peers below the control bar.

2. Select companies. Search by company name, or narrow the list with the Location, Headcount, Ownership, and Industry filters. You can sort the list by headcount, market cap, or revenue. Select + Add next to each company you want to include. The companies you add appear in the Selected panel on the right. To remove a company, select the trash icon next to it.
3. Check the requirements. After you add your first company, the Peer group requirements box shows whether your selection meets the rules, such as the 15-company minimum, the 100-company maximum, and the 3-company difference from your active and pending groups. The concentration check is not part of this box. If your group is too concentrated, Pave shows an error when you save and asks you to add more companies.
4. Preview data coverage (optional). Once you've selected at least 15 companies, select Preview group data coverage to see how much data your group has. The job families tab shows a coverage level for each job family, and the locations tab shows a map of where your group has data.
5. Select Next.
6. Name your group. Enter a name of up to 255 characters. Each name must be unique. To change your selection, select Back (the companies you've selected stay in place).
7. Select Save, then select Yes, save peer group to confirm.

Start from suggested companies

Not sure who to add to your Peer Group? Before you add any companies, the Selected panel shows a Suggest participants button. Select it, and Pave recommends 15 companies that are similar to yours based on industry, headcount, revenue, mix of roles and departments, and other factors. You can add or remove companies from the suggestions before saving. Suggestions are informational only, so review them with a qualified compensation professional before making decisions.

This option appears only if Pave has enough data about your company to find similar companies.

After you save

If your new group meets all the requirements, it becomes active immediately and Pave applies it to the benchmarks you're viewing. Applying the group clears any company filters you had applied. If it differs by only 1 or 2 companies from a group you archived in the last 90 days, Pave warns you before you save, and the new group is saved in a Pending state (see Peer Group states below). Pending groups are not applied to your benchmarks.

If you close the Create peer group window before saving, Pave asks you to confirm, and the companies you've selected are not saved.

Peer Group states

Each Peer Group has one of four states:

Active The group is ready to use. Active groups appear in the Peer Groups filter dropdown when browsing Market Data.

Pending The group was created while a similar group (fewer than 3 companies different) was archived within the last 90 days. Pending groups cannot be used as filters. The management panel shows how many days remain before you can activate the group. Once the 90-day window passes, click Activate to move the group to Active. Activation is not automatic.

Archived The group is no longer available as a filter. You can archive any active group from the management panel. Archived groups still count toward the 3-company difference rule for 90 days after archiving.

A Peer Group is also automatically archived if companies in Pave's dataset drop out, leaving the group with 12 or fewer companies.

Deleted Archived groups can be permanently deleted after they have been archived for 90 or more days.

Manage your Peer Groups

To view and manage all your Peer Groups, click the Peer Groups dropdown in the top filter bar, then click Manage. From this panel you can:

• See all groups, their state, and when they were created
• Archive an active group
• Activate a pending group (once the 90-day window has passed)
• Delete an archived group (after 90 days)

Use a Peer Group in Market Data

Once a Peer Group is active, you can apply it as a filter:

1. Open Market Data and select a job family and level.
2. Click the Peer Groups filter in the top filter bar.
3. Select one or more active Peer Groups. Benchmark data updates to reflect only the companies in your selected groups.

You can hover over a Peer Group name in the dropdown to see the companies included in that group.

For some locations, your Peer Group may not have enough raw data to produce a benchmark. In these cases, Pave uses a Calculated Benchmark, a model that estimates compensation for your group using broader market data. A label indicates when a Calculated Benchmark is being used. Click this link to learn more about Calculated Benchmarks.

Peer Groups in reports

When you export a Market Data report, you can include Peer Groups as a filter. The export reflects whichever Peer Groups you have selected at the time of export.

Frequently asked questions

Can I add a company that is not in Pave's dataset?

Only companies that participate in Pave's compensation data platform are available for inclusion in Peer Groups. If a company you want to benchmark against does not appear in the selection panel, it is not yet part of Pave's dataset.

What does "Impacts Peer Group Requirements" mean?

This label appears in the management panel next to groups that currently affect the 3-company difference rule. Active groups always impact requirements. Pending groups and recently archived groups (within 90 days) also impact requirements. Groups archived more than 90 days ago do not.

What happens if a company in my Peer Group leaves Pave's dataset?

If a company is removed from the dataset, it is automatically removed from any Peer Groups that included it. If this causes a group to drop below 12 companies, the group is automatically archived.