Salary range penetration calculator: range penetration and compa ratio for one salary or a whole team
Salary range penetration is the salary minus the range minimum, divided by the range maximum minus the minimum. An $88,000 salary in an $80,000 to $104,000 range is 33.3 percent penetrated: a third of the way from entry pay to the ceiling. Below zero is under the minimum, above 100 percent is over the maximum.
Check one person in the calculator, then paste your team into the roster checker in section 02 to see everyone at once, with the dollar cost of bringing anyone below the minimum up to it. Section 01 shows why a compa ratio rule you borrowed from somebody else can mean the opposite thing in your own ranges.
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Salary range penetration calculator
Range penetration
33.3%
Compa ratio
95.7%
Midpoint
$92,000
Gap to midpoint
$4,000
Range spread
30.0%
What that means
Second quartile: developing toward full proficiency
Raise needed to reach the minimum:
Is the range itself right? Price it from market data.
Build a bandThe range penetration formula, and why a compa ratio rule does not transfer
Range penetration answers one question: how much of the grade has this person used up? It ignores the market and looks only at the room between the lowest and highest rate you will pay for the job. That makes it the right number for placing people inside a grade, and the wrong number for asking whether the grade is priced correctly, which is what compa ratio and the midpoint are for.
The formulas
penetration = (salary - minimum) / (maximum - minimum)
compa ratio = salary / midpoint
penetration = (compa ratio x (1 + spread / 2) - 1) / spread
The third line converts one into the other for a range built symmetrically around its midpoint, with spread as a decimal. It is where most borrowed rules of thumb break, because spread sits inside it.
Plenty of comp guidance says an employee under a 90 percent compa ratio is underpaid and needs attention. Run that through the conversion. In a narrow 20 percent range, a 90 percent compa ratio is minus 5 percent penetration: the person is below the minimum and you have a problem today. In a wide 80 percent range, the same 90 percent compa ratio is 32.5 percent penetration, a perfectly normal place for someone two years into the job. One threshold, two opposite verdicts, and the only thing that changed was the width of the grade.
The table makes the point for every common spread. Read across a row to see how fast penetration moves as compa ratio changes, and notice that a compa ratio of 100 percent is always exactly 50 percent penetration. That is the only place the two metrics agree regardless of range width.
Where each grade starts and stops
The compa ratio at the minimum is 1 / (1 + spread / 2). At the maximum it is (1 + spread) / (1 + spread / 2).
- 20% spread
- 90.9% to 109.1%
- 30% spread
- 87.0% to 113.0%
- 40% spread
- 83.3% to 116.7%
- 50% spread
- 80.0% to 120.0%
- 80% spread
- 71.4% to 128.6%
For a single-salary check against the midpoint alone, use the compa ratio calculator.
| Range spread | Compa 85% | Compa 90% | Compa 95% | Compa 100% | Compa 105% | Compa 110% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | -32.5% | -5.0% | 22.5% | 50.0% | 77.5% | 105.0% |
| 30% | -7.5% | 11.7% | 30.8% | 50.0% | 69.2% | 88.3% |
| 40% | 5.0% | 20.0% | 35.0% | 50.0% | 65.0% | 80.0% |
| 50% | 12.5% | 25.0% | 37.5% | 50.0% | 62.5% | 75.0% |
| 80% | 23.8% | 32.5% | 41.3% | 50.0% | 58.8% | 67.5% |
Computed by Wagelist from the conversion formula above for ranges set symmetrically around the midpoint. Highlighted cells fall outside the range: below the minimum or above the maximum.
Check a whole team's range penetration at once
Team range penetration checker
Paste straight from a spreadsheet: tabs, commas or semicolons all work. People in different grades? Add their own minimum and maximum after the salary on that line (name, salary, min, max) and the grade fields above are ignored for them.
Average penetration
56.3%
Below minimum
1
Cost to reach minimum
$1,500
Above maximum
1
| Employee | Salary | Penetration | Compa | Zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pay above the grade maximum across this list: a year. That is not a cost to cut. It is the amount the range has to move, or the time a pay hold has to run, before those people are back inside the grade.
Average penetration near 50 percent looks healthy and can hide a split team: three people in the first quartile and three in the fourth average out to the middle. Look at the zone column before the average. A cluster of long-tenured people in Q1 next to recent hires in Q3 is pay compression, and it is the pattern most likely to walk out the door.
The cost to reach minimum is the smallest defensible fix, not the right one. Moving someone from minus 6 percent to exactly 0 percent puts them at the floor of a job they may have done for three years. Budget for where they should sit given tenure and performance, which is usually well into the second quartile.
How long it takes to penetrate a range: the published federal answer
Almost nothing published tells you how fast an employee should move through a range. Private structures keep that to themselves. The federal General Schedule is the exception, because both its pay rates and its timing rules are public, so it is worth measuring rather than guessing.
Every GS grade has ten steps, and from GS-3 upward the steps are equal dollar amounts, so each step is exactly one ninth of the range. The waiting periods between steps are set in 5 CFR 531.405: 52 calendar weeks for each step below step 4, 104 weeks for each step from step 4 up to step 7, and 156 weeks for each step from step 7 onward, for an employee with a scheduled tour of duty performing at an acceptable level. Put the two together for GS-13 in Salary Table 2026-GS and you get this.
| GS-13 step | Annual rate | Range penetration | Compa ratio | Earliest years in grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,925 | 0.0% | 87.0% | 0 |
| 2 | $93,956 | 11.1% | 89.9% | 1 |
| 3 | $96,987 | 22.2% | 92.8% | 2 |
| 4 | $100,018 | 33.3% | 95.7% | 3 |
| 5 | $103,049 | 44.4% | 98.6% | 5 |
| 6 | $106,080 | 55.6% | 101.4% | 7 |
| 7 | $109,111 | 66.7% | 104.3% | 9 |
| 8 | $112,142 | 77.8% | 107.2% | 12 |
| 9 | $115,173 | 88.9% | 110.1% | 15 |
| 10 | $118,204 | 100.0% | 113.0% | 18 |
Annual rates from Salary Table 2026-GS, US Office of Personnel Management, effective January 2026 (base rates, before locality pay). Waiting periods from 5 CFR 531.405(a)(1). Penetration, compa ratio against the $104,564.50 computed midpoint, and cumulative years computed by Wagelist. Years are the fastest path with no quality step increases.
Finding 1
Thirds take 3, 6 and 9 years
The first third of the range takes three years, the middle third six, the last third nine. Movement slows in the ratio 1 to 2 to 3 as penetration rises. That is a merit matrix written into regulation: bigger relative gains low in the range, smaller ones near the top.
Finding 2
The midpoint arrives around year 6
Fifty percent penetration falls between step 5 (year 5) and step 6 (year 7). A fully proficient federal employee is expected to reach market pay after roughly six years in grade, not two. Most private companies hire at or near the midpoint and then wonder why the range has no room left.
Finding 3
The top is an 18 year destination
Reaching 100 percent takes at least 18 years in one grade. If your own team has people in the fourth quartile after three or four years, the range is too narrow, it has not moved with the market, or those people belong in the next grade up.
You do not have to copy the federal pace, and a 60-person software company should not. But it is a useful sanity check because it is the only fully published answer. If your merit budget would carry a strong performer from minimum to maximum in five years, the range is doing the job of a promotion ladder and the grades above it will fill with people who arrived there by tenure. The fix belongs to salary structure design, not to any individual raise.
What is a good range penetration, and what to do in each zone
| Penetration | Who normally sits here | Merit cycle treatment | Red flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 0% | Nobody, by design | Adjust to at least the minimum outside the merit budget | Always. A green circle rate is an equity finding waiting to happen |
| 0% to 25% | New hires, recent promotions | Largest percentage increases for good performance | Anyone here after two or more years of solid ratings |
| 25% to 50% | Developing toward full proficiency | Above-average increases, steady movement toward midpoint | A new hire placed above a tenured peer in the same zone |
| 50% to 75% | Fully proficient, experienced | Market-rate increases | Average performers drifting upward on tenure alone |
| 75% to 100% | Sustained top performers, deep experts | Smaller base increases, lump sums above a cap | A whole team here means the range has not moved |
| Above 100% | Red circle rates | No base increase until the range catches up, or regrade | Always. Needs a written reason unrelated to sex, race or age |
The last column is the part that matters legally. Under the Equal Pay Act, 29 CFR 1620.26 allows a red circle rate only where it is maintained for reasons unrelated to sex, such as keeping a long-service employee's pay after a transfer to lighter work. It also says rates that were set on the basis of sex may not be red circled to comply with the Act. So every person outside the range needs a reason you could write down. How long to hold them and what to pay instead of a raise is worked through in the red circle rate policy guide.
The zones also drive the second axis of a merit matrix. Plenty of teams use compa ratio for that axis, which is fine when every grade has the same spread. If your engineering ranges are 50 percent wide and your support ranges 25 percent, penetration quartiles give both groups the same treatment for the same position in the grade, and compa ratio bands do not, for the reasons in section 01.
Where range penetration earns its keep
Placing an offer
Decide the offer's penetration before the dollar figure, then check it against the people already in the grade. An offer at 45 percent into a team where the two-year incumbents sit at 30 percent is a compression problem you created on day one.
Posting a range in a job ad
Several states require the range you in good faith expect to pay. If every hire lands between 0 and 40 percent, posting the full grade overstates it. Many teams post only the hiring zone, as covered in salary ranges on job postings.
Running a pay equity check
Penetration compares people across grades of different widths without translation. Sort a job family by penetration and tenure together and gaps between groups show up quickly. The full method is in the pay equity audit guide.
Repricing the structure
When ranges move up, everyone's penetration falls with no change in pay. Run the roster checker before and after a structure increase to see who drops below the minimum, and budget that cost before the new ranges are announced.
Penetration is only as defensible as the range
A perfect 50 percent in a range nobody priced is still a guess. Build the minimum, midpoint and maximum for a real US role from public federal wage data, and show where every number came from.
Range penetration questions
How do you calculate salary range penetration?
Subtract the range minimum from the salary, then divide by the range maximum minus the range minimum. An $88,000 salary in an $80,000 to $104,000 range is 8,000 divided by 24,000, which is 33.3 percent. Zero means paid at the minimum, 100 percent at the maximum, and anything outside that is outside the range.
What is a good range penetration?
For a fully proficient employee who has been in the job a few years, somewhere around 40 to 60 percent, which puts pay near the midpoint. New hires still learning the role usually sit between 0 and 35 percent. Above 75 percent should be reserved for sustained top performers, and above 100 percent means the grade needs review.
What is the difference between compa ratio and range penetration?
Compa ratio divides salary by the midpoint, so it measures pay against the market target. Range penetration measures how far pay has moved from the minimum toward the maximum, so it measures position inside the grade. The same compa ratio means a different penetration in a narrow range than in a wide one.
Can range penetration be negative?
Yes. A negative range penetration means the salary is below the range minimum, which is called a green circle rate. At minus 10 percent in an $80,000 to $104,000 range the employee earns $77,600. Either the employee is in the wrong grade or the range moved and their pay did not follow it.
What does a range penetration over 100 percent mean?
The salary is above the range maximum, which is called a red circle rate. It usually follows a demotion that kept pay, a counteroffer approved without moving the range, or years of merit increases in a structure that was never repriced. Most employers stop base increases until the range catches up.
How do you calculate range penetration in Excel?
With the minimum in A2, the maximum in B2 and the salary in C2, enter =(C2-A2)/(B2-A2) and format the cell as a percentage. Copy it down the column for a team. Add =C2/((A2+B2)/2) in the next column for compa ratio, since the midpoint of a symmetric range is the average of minimum and maximum.
Why use range penetration instead of compa ratio?
Because it reads the same way in every grade. A compa ratio of 90 percent sits below the minimum of a 20 percent range but a third of the way into an 80 percent range. Penetration of 25 percent always means one quarter of the way up, so it compares people across grades of different widths without translation.
What is range penetration in compensation?
Range penetration is a compensation metric that shows where an employee is paid inside their salary range, as a percentage of the distance from the minimum to the maximum. Comp teams use it to place new hires, weight merit increases, spot pay compression and flag employees who sit outside their range.
Keep going
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Salary midpoint calculator
Build the minimum, midpoint and maximum the penetration is measured against.
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Salary bands
Price the band itself from market data.
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Red circle rate policy
What to do with everyone above 100 percent.
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Range penetration in the merit cycle
Zones, formula and using penetration alongside compa ratio.