---
title: Pay scales and contract positioning
description: "Build the fiscal year's pay scale, assign contracts to a class and read their positioning within the ranges."
url: "https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/budget-pay-scales-and-positioning/"
updated: "2026-11-01"
category: "Budget & payroll costs"
---

# Pay scales and contract positioning

The **Pay scales & positioning** tab describes, for each fiscal year, the salary classes and their range, then shows where each contract sits within its range. This article explains how to build the pay scale, assign contracts and read the positioning. It is intended for HR and payroll teams.

## Before you start

- The "Pay scales & positioning" permission opens the tab at the **Access** level (pay scale and indicators); the **Execute** level allows configuring the pay scale and the grade mapping, assigning contracts and seeing named salaries. By default: Execute for the Administrator, HR Manager and Payroll Manager roles.
- The fiscal year must exist in **Multi-year & funding**; otherwise the tab asks you to create it there to set its pay scale.

## Amount conventions

Pay scale amounts are **annual, gross, at 100%**, in the module currency. Each contract's salary is compared on the same basis:

- fixed salary: the monthly salary at 100% multiplied by the number of salaries paid (13th and 14th included);
- hourly salary: the hourly rate multiplied by the weekly reference hours (those of the position, failing that the department, office or company) and by 52 weeks;
- bonuses are not included.

The tab reads the salaried contracts current on a given date: today for the current fiscal year, 31 December for a past one, 1 January for a future one. External contracts and draft records are not included; a parallel employment counts on its own.

## What the page shows

![Pay scales & positioning tab: indicators, positioning within ranges and contracts outside the range](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/budget-pay-scales-and-positioning-01.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
The Pay scales & positioning tab

| Indicator | What it measures |
| --- | --- |
| Median compa-ratio | The median of individual compa-ratios (salary divided by the class median); 1.00 means "at the class median" |
| Within range | The share of compared contracts whose salary lies between their class minimum and maximum |
| Assigned contracts | The number of contracts assigned to a class of the pay scale, and those with no class yet |
| Gap to market | Shown if at least one class has a market median: the average gap between salaries and that median |

- **Positioning within ranges**: for each active class, the minimum, median and maximum band; each dot is a contract, in red if it falls outside the range.
- **Outside the range**: the contracts to regularise, from the largest gap to the smallest, marked "Below minimum" or "Above maximum". The named list is reserved for the Execute level; at the Access level, only their number is shown.
- **Pay scale**: the table of classes (class, reference function, minimum, median, maximum, market, number of steps, headcount).
- An orange box flags contracts that are not counted: with no class, assigned to a class missing from the pay scale, or with no comparable salary.

## Building the pay scale

### Adding a class

1. Choose the fiscal year then click **Add a class**.
2. Fill in the **Code** (unique within the fiscal year, 20 characters at most), the **Reference function** (optional), the **Minimum**, **Median** and **Maximum** (in increasing order) and, if you wish, the **Market median**.
3. Add steps if needed with **Add a step**, or **Space evenly** for evenly spaced steps between the minimum and the maximum. Each step must stay within the range and not be lower than the previous one. Without steps, the class is a simple range.
4. Leave **Active class (open to assignments)** switched on, then click **Save**.

![New class dialog: code, reference function, minimum, median, maximum, market median and steps](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/budget-pay-scales-and-positioning-02.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
The add class dialog

The icons on each row of the table edit or delete a class. A class to which contracts are assigned during the fiscal year cannot be deleted: deactivate it instead. A step in use cannot be removed.

### Copying a pay scale

When the fiscal year's pay scale is empty, **Copy another pay scale** takes over the pay scale of another fiscal year (the previous year by default). Enter an **Increase (%)** if needed: each amount (bounds, market median, steps) is increased by that percentage and rounded to the unit. Codes, functions and active state are kept.

### Mapping grades

**Grade mapping** links each grade of the organisation to a class. Each choice is saved immediately. This mapping is used to pre-fill the assignments of contracts with that grade, from one fiscal year to the next.

## Assigning contracts

1. Click **Assignments**. The dialog lists contracts with their grade, class, reference salary and position; filter with the search box or **Without a class only**.
2. Click **Assign** (or **Edit**), choose the class, the step and the **Effective date**, then save. The assignment runs until the next one; an assignment on a date that already has one replaces it.
3. To go faster, **Pre-fill from grades** proposes a class for contracts with no class whose grade is mapped, and the step whose amount is closest to their salary. Untick those not to write, then click **Write N assignment(s)**.

![Pay scale Assignments dialog](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/budget-pay-scales-and-positioning-03.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
The assignments dialog

Pre-filling never touches a contract that is already assigned. It writes on the fiscal year's reading date (today, 1 January or 31 December). **Remove assignment** deletes the dated assignment shown: the previous assignment, if any, becomes current again.

## In the employee's profile

When the module is active, the **Salaries** page of the profile shows the **Pay scale class** card for the current year: class, step, reference salary, compa-ratio and position within the range, with the assignment date. It is visible to people who can read this employee's base salary; the **Assign** or **Edit** button only appears at the Execute level of the "Pay scales & positioning" permission.

![A profile's Salaries page with the Pay scale class card](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/budget-pay-scales-and-positioning-04.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
The profile's Pay scale class card

Saving a base salary outside the class range shows an out-of-scale warning, never a block.

## Good to know

- While the module is active, the salary ranges of grades (organisation reference data) are held by the module's pay scale: they can no longer be entered there.
- The effective date offered by default is today; to assign in the pay scale of a future fiscal year, choose a date in that year, as the class is checked against the pay scale of the effective date's year.
- Only active classes are offered for assignment and pre-filling.
- The "Pay scale positioning" system report provides this data in People Analytics.

### *Similaire*