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Compensation inspiration

Compensation Cookbook

A curated selection of compensation practices from companies that publish how they pay. Remix philosophy, transparency, negotiation stance, raises, equity, and benefits into your own approach.

About this cookbook

What's this?

A pick-and-mix gallery of compensation practices from companies that publish how they pay. Ingredients are organised by theme: philosophy, transparency, negotiation, automatic raises, equity, and benefits.

How to use

1Browse by theme with the chapter nav, or scroll the full cookbook.
2Open live examples from the companies that published them, then remix what fits your stage and values.

Building your own philosophy?

Start with a clear compensation philosophy, then use these ingredients to pressure-test how open, consistent, and candidate-friendly your system really is. Compensation Philosophy.

With thanks

Shoutout to the companies whose open culture stance lets the rest of us learn.

Basecamp

Buffer

Grafana Labs

Linear

Lovable

Monzo

PostHog

Sourcegraph

Vercel

How pay gets decided

Philosophy

The principles behind the numbers: who owns comp, how bands are set, and whether the formula or the manager is the answer.

Buffer

The formula is the answer: same pay, no negotiation, published for everyone

Salary formulaNo negotiationPublic

View live example

Basecamp

90th percentile SF rate, no location adjustment, no negotiation

90th percentileNo location adjustment

View live example

PostHog

Comp owned by execs, not managers: removes bias from the equation

Exec-ownedBias reduction

View live example

Sourcegraph

75th percentile baseline, no negotiation, four sign-offs for exceptions

75th percentileException governance

View live example

What candidates and teams can see

Transparency

How openly you share salaries, bands, and progression so people can make informed decisions without guessing.

Buffer

Every salary published publicly by name, role, and location

Public salariesNamed transparency

View live example

Sourcegraph

All bands visible internally and externally, salary on every job posting

Public bandsJob post salary

View live example

Monzo

Progression framework tied directly to public salary bands

ProgressionPublic bands

View live example

Offer conversations

Negotiation

Whether negotiation is part of the process at all, and how exceptions (if any) get governed.

Buffer

No negotiation ever: the formula is the answer

No negotiationFormula-led

View live example

Basecamp

No negotiation: same role, same pay

No negotiationRole parity

View live example

Sourcegraph

No negotiation: four executive sign-offs required for any exception

No negotiationException governance

View live example

Pay progression without the ask

Automatic raises

Built-in increases that remove the politics of asking, and make progression more predictable.

Lovable

10% automatic anniversary raise, 90th percentile base

Anniversary raise90th percentile

View live example

Grafana Labs

Automatic 4% every six months for strong performance

Automatic raisePerformance-linked

View live example

Ownership and alternatives

Equity

How companies use equity (or deliberately choose not to) as part of the total reward story.

Linear

Early exercise options and extended exercise windows

Early exerciseOptions

View live example

Vercel

Equity as a test of conviction: push for base over RSUs reads as less committed

RSUsCandidate signal

View live example

Basecamp

No equity: profit sharing instead, 25% of annual profit growth distributed

Profit sharingNo equity

View live example

Beyond base and equity

Benefits

Time off, health, parental leave, and the philosophy behind which perks stay and which get cut.

Basecamp

Anti-paternalistic: cancelled wellness perks, replaced with profit sharing

Profit sharingPerks philosophy

View live example

Grafana Labs

30 days PTO globally, mandatory shutdown days, co-working budget

PTOShutdown days

View live example

Linear

5 weeks PTO, 4 months parental leave, early equity exercise

PTOParental leave

View live example

Sourcegraph

Minimum 30 days encouraged, 100% health premium covered

PTOHealth cover

View live example

More open resources

Other free templates and diagnostics from Open Org.

Want help remixing these into your compensation approach?

Build a compensation plan with AI

Bring your stage and constraints, then draft a philosophy-to-benefits plan inspired by the ingredients above.

Compensation Cookbook by Open Org. Contribute a practice at hello@openorg.fyi.