Hire an AI salary band and benefits planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• Market pay ranges for each role, with outliers flagged
• Pay bands with a low, middle and high and a method in plain words
• A pay philosophy, a bonus plan and a benefits list that fit your budget
• Equity grant models if you offer equity

How it does the job well

• Base people decisions on job-related evidence, applied the same way to everyone.
• Write in plain, respectful language the person affected could read.
• Keep personal data to what the task needs, and handle it privately.
• Check local employment law and company policy before advising on hiring, pay or exits.

Mistakes it avoids

• Biased wording in job ads, reviews or interview questions.
• Plans with no owner, timing or way to check progress.
• Treating a template as legal advice.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You are about to make offers and have no pay ranges.

• Step 1: Market benchmarks. Pay at the 25th to 90th percentile for each role, with source and date, outliers against your pay and equity models.
• Step 2: Pay bands. A low, middle and high for each role, where your pay sits in the band and a method note in plain words.
• Step 3: Pay and benefits plan. A pay philosophy, grades, a bonus plan, a benefits list, a total rewards outline and total cost against budget.
• Flags and next steps. Your assumptions, missing data and what needs HR or legal review.
• Hand-back summary. Each step's file and every MISSING line in one list.

How the work is checked

• Each step passed its own checks, or the run stopped at the step that failed and says why.
• The steps ran in order, and each one used the result of the one before.
• Nothing was invented to fill a gap. Every gap is a MISSING: line.
• Nothing was sent, published or paid for without a clear yes.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

Capabilities

• Benchmark the market. Lists the roles, gathers market pay for each, flags where your pay is far from it and models equity grants if you offer them.
• Build the pay bands. Matches each role to its market data, sets a low, middle and high, checks the bands still compete and writes the method in plain words.
• Plan pay and benefits. States a pay philosophy, fits bonus ideas to the bands, lists the benefits your budget allows and shows the maths to check.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id set-fair-pay-bands-and-a-pay-and-benefits-plan only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/set-fair-pay-bands-and-a-pay-and-benefits-plan/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• The roles, levels and place for each, and how many people are in each
• What you pay now, if you have people in those roles (optional)
• Your total budget or a limit per role
• Any market pay data you already have (optional)

Tools and access

• Any chat AI that reads tables: It needs to read your survey extract and show the arithmetic.
• Google Sheets or Excel: Paste the range in to check the numbers and keep a record.
• Any chat AI that can build tables: The bands and cost lines are tables, and the maths is easier to check in one.
• Google Sheets or Excel: Paste the bands in to check the maths and test other budgets.

Functions and deliverables

• Salary band and benefits planner: Share roles, location, pay data and budget. Get market comparisons, salary bands and a proposed bonus and benefits plan.
  • Market pay ranges for each role, with outliers flagged
  • Pay bands with a low, middle and high and a method in plain words
  • A pay philosophy, a bonus plan and a benefits list that fit your budget
  • Equity grant models if you offer equity
• Pay benchmark and equity modeler: Check what to pay for a role, find pay outliers in your sheet, or model a stock grant. Get market pay ranges and notes on assumptions.
  • Market range for the role
  • List of pay outliers
  • Equity value schedule by year
  • Notes on assumptions
  Source: Anthropic.
• Pay band builder: Find what to pay for a role. Give it market pay data and get a pay range with a midpoint and a method note leaders can follow.
  • A pay range with minimum, midpoint and maximum
  • Notes on how your job matches a market job
  • Where current pay sits in the range
  • A list of any gaps in the data
  • A short method note for leaders
  Source: Tuan Duc Tran.
• Pay and benefits plan builder: Share your roles, pay data and budget. Get draft pay bands, bonus rules or benefits plans for your team.
  • A short pay philosophy you can edit
  • Roles grouped into grades
  • A table of pay bands with min, mid and max for each grade
  • A bonus plan with its payout formula and cost
  • A benefits list, split into core and optional
  • The total cost set against your budget
  Source: Tuan Duc Tran.
• me.md builder: Answer a few questions, or let your AI use what it remembers. Get one private file that tells any AI who you are.
  • One me.md file with up to ten dated sections
  • A list of facts taken from memory, for you to check
  • A short note of what it removed for privacy
  • The two next steps, to save it and set it up

Tasks you can use it for

• You are about to make offers and have no pay ranges.
• Two people do the same job on very different pay.
• Someone asks how their pay was set and you have no clear answer.

Limits to check before starting

• You are making one offer now and need the letter checked: use Hiring document and candidate reviewer.
• You want to plan how many people to hire and the cost: use Annual hiring and staff-cost planner.
• You pay a sales team on commission: use Sales hiring and pay planner.
• Payroll is due and you need the inputs checked: use Payroll hours and approval review.
• You pay creators, not staff: use the Creator pay planner.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the handoff pack. It is a zip with HANDOFF.md and the 3 skill files in the order they run: Pay benchmark and equity modeler, Pay band builder and Pay and benefits plan builder.
• Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
• List each role with its level and place. Add what you pay now if you can.
• Check the market ranges against one source you trust before the bands are set.
• Check every sum in the plan by hand and have an adviser review it before you share it.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/set-fair-pay-bands-and-a-pay-and-benefits-plan for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.