Aon Radford McLagan Compensation Database

Overview

Aon Radford McLagan Compensation Database is a market-pay benchmarking service for HR, total rewards and compensation leaders. It is best suited to organizations making pay decisions across many roles or countries. Its breadth and analytic tools are compelling for complex compensation work, but custom pricing makes it less suited to buyers who need a fixed, self-serve entry point.

Key features

Coverage extends to more than 33 million employees and over 100,000 jobs across 17 major industries, with data spanning more than 115 countries across North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC. That scale gives multinational teams a substantial basis for cross-market comparisons; organizations focused on a narrow set of roles and locations may have less reason to pay for such reach.

Benchmarking and advanced reporting cover job comparisons, market trends, custom peer groups and tailored reports. Quarterly data refreshes are useful for teams that revisit pay decisions through the year, while Aon's job architecture and matching methodology supports structured role comparisons and, according to Aon, pay equity and transparency.

Quick Benchmark, Market Query and Job Matching AI agents address compensation questions, market analysis and role matching. Data can be submitted through direct integration with leading HRIS systems or through curated manual templates supported by a dedicated client manager. The former can reduce submission work where systems fit; the manual option offers a supported path. Participation includes 24/7 access to Aon's Human Capital Analytics platform.

Companion market-practice studies address salary increases and turnover, incentive plan design, early-career talent, employee engagement, sales compensation and severance policies. These broaden the resource beyond pay benchmarks, particularly for total rewards teams weighing related policies.

Pricing

Radford McLagan Compensation Database: custom pricing. Fees vary with benchmarking needs, from a single country to multi-market decisions, and participation includes 24/7 platform access. The paid model and variable scope suit organizations able to define their benchmark needs with Aon, but provide no fixed-price entry point for cost comparison.

Platforms

The service is available on Android, iOS and web. Participation also includes 24/7 access to the Human Capital Analytics platform.

Who it's for

This is a strong fit for compensation and total rewards teams that need global benchmarks, job matching, custom peer groups and advanced reporting in one service. A single-country team can still request a scope tailored to that market, but buyers with limited benchmarking needs may find the broad coverage and custom-priced model harder to justify.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Data across 115-plus countries, 17 industries and more than 100,000 jobs supports broad, cross-market comparisons.
• Pro: Quarterly refreshes, custom peer groups and tailored reporting support recurring compensation reviews.
• Pro: AI agents, job-matching methodology and HRIS submission options address analysis and data contribution workflows.
• Con: Custom pricing that varies by scope offers no clear fixed-cost starting point.
• Con: HRIS integration is described broadly, so organizations should confirm that their systems are supported before relying on automated submissions.

Alternatives

For a free starting point, OpenComp offers a free Comp Cycles plan with global compensation data, benchmarking, pay equity, ranges, headcount planning, total rewards statements, merit increases and intelligent offers; it also offers a free trial. Pave Market Data has a free Market Data Lite plan for U.S. benchmarks and one additional market, aimed at startups with 1–200 employees, while its Pro plan covers global benchmarks. Choose Compensation IQ when a published annual price is preferable: Job Architecture & Levelling is 2500.00 GBP per year, billed annually, for 100–200 employees and one super user; Global Salary Benchmarking is 4200.00 GBP per year, billed annually.

Comptryx+ is another paid web-based compensation database. PayPulse offers paid web and API access with a free plan. Culpepper Compensation Surveys offers paid web-based standard and premium data licenses with jobs and countries tailored to the organization. Revelio Labs Compensation Data offers API and web access, a free trial and a Revelio Terminal plan at 1250.00 USD per month with an annual commitment. Salary.com CompXL is a paid web-based option with personalized-demo pricing and no free plan.

Browse Salary Benchmarking Software for more pay-benchmarking choices, or Talent Assessment Software for assessment-focused tools.

Verdict

Choose Aon Radford McLagan when your compensation team needs wide global coverage, recurring benchmarks and tools for matching jobs and shaping peer groups. The scale and reporting depth are its clearest advantages; look elsewhere if a fixed public price or a modest, narrowly focused benchmark is the priority.