The February New-Hire Salary Spike

Published May 2026 - originally on LinkedIn.

In February 2025, new hire salaries were 14% above existing employees in the same role.

In February 2026, the same spike happened: 12.3%.

This is from Ravio's compensation data, and it maps exactly to what I see in the companies I work with. (Here's the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/ddjADrPy )

What drives is the combination of post-holiday resignations and new headcount approvals landing at the same time in January.

Hiring urgency rises – and urgency leads to making above-band exceptions to fill the roles.

The salary compression this causes sits largely unnoticed until the annual compensation review months later – when we see existing employee salaries rising above new hires.

The gap does close eventually.

But by then it's had months to become a pay equity problem and a retention risk.

I've been thinking a lot about salary compression recently, because, with the EU Pay Transparency Directive coming, it will no longer be invisible.

Many of those existing employees will see a salary range posted in a job ad, for a role identical to theirs, but at current market rates. Or they'll submit an information request and see how new hires sit higher in band.

The companies I'm working with are getting ahead of this by treating pay equity as a live process – with checks and analysis built into every decision, including new hire salaries.