How SalaryCube's Bigfoot Live Data Works: Sources, Coverage, and Freshness
SalaryCube's compensation benchmarks come from Bigfoot Live, a real-time salary data engine covering 35,000+ US job titles across all US industries and metro areas, built on 800 million+ data points and updated daily. Bigfoot Live draws on multilayered US sources, including live job postings, public filings, and direct client participation, updated daily. No survey participation is required to access the data.
This page is for HR and compensation professionals evaluating whether SalaryCube's data is current, broad, and defensible enough to support pay decisions. It describes what feeds the benchmarks and why that matters; it does not disclose proprietary processing.
- 35,000+
- US job titles in Bigfoot Live, across all industries and metro areas
- 800M+
- data points behind the benchmarks
- Daily
- update cadence, versus the annual cycle of traditional surveys
- US only
- all US industries and cities; no global or multi-country claims
What data sources feed SalaryCube's benchmarks?
Bigfoot Live draws on multilayered US sources, including live job postings, public filings, and direct client participation, updated daily.
Three kinds of US sources feed Bigfoot Live: live job postings, public filings, and direct client participation. Together they cover all US industries and cities, and the engine refreshes daily so the benchmark you pull today reflects today's market.
Survey data you import is a separate thing. Through Data Sources, customers can bring in Mercer, Radford, WTW, Comptryx, Payscale, Salary.com, or custom survey files. That imported data stays private to each customer and is never blended into Bigfoot Live's market data. It works across all SalaryCube tools alongside the market data, and you can compare the two side by side.
- Live job postings, public filings, and direct client participation (US only)
- Updated daily; no annual survey cycle to wait on
- No survey participation required to access the data
- Imported survey data stays private to your company and is never mixed into the market dataset
How current is the data?
Bigfoot Live is updated daily. Traditional salary surveys update annually and typically cover 200 to 500 jobs. Bigfoot Live covers 35,000+ US job titles and refreshes every day. Traditional surveys also require months of participation before results arrive; SalaryCube provides instant access. For a compensation team, that means an offer, a range refresh, or a merit budget can be checked against this month's market rather than last year's survey.
| Dimension | Traditional salary surveys | SalaryCube (Bigfoot Live) |
|---|---|---|
| Update cadence | Annual | Daily |
| Job titles covered | Typically 200 to 500 jobs | 35,000+ titles via Bigfoot Live |
| Access | Months of participation before results | Instant access, no survey participation required |
| Geography | Varies by vendor | US only: all US industries and metro areas |
What does the data cover?
Bigfoot Live covers 35,000+ US job titles across all US industries and cities. DataDive Pro, the reporting engine, organizes 17,000+ of those titles by job family and level so teams can see pay progression from entry level to executive and filter by geography, industry, revenue, and headcount.
SalaryCube sells industry-specific data packages for Healthcare, Information Technology, Manufacturing, and Real Estate, plus cross-industry coverage. Every quote includes the full platform across all supported industries, with no per-industry fees and no modules to unlock.
US only. SalaryCube does not claim global or multi-country coverage. If your organization benchmarks roles outside the United States, you will need a multi-country provider for those markets. You can import that survey data into SalaryCube privately through Data Sources.
How do percentiles and ranges work?
DataDive Pro reports pay from the 10th to the 90th percentile for each benchmark, so a team can see the full distribution rather than a single average. Percentiles are the standard way compensation professionals express market position: the 50th percentile is the market median, and a range built around P25, P50, and P75 shows where an employer chooses to meet, lead, or lag the market. For a plain-language walkthrough, see what the 75th percentile means in salary.
Range Builder turns those percentiles into pay ranges using configurable percentile recipes (P25/P50/P75). You choose the recipe that matches your pay philosophy, and the range is created from real-time market data in 60 seconds. Ranges can be refreshed from the latest market data in one click.
Imported survey data can be aged to current inside Data Sources, so a survey published months ago can sit next to daily-updated market data on a comparable basis. You see both the original and the aged value.
Is the data defensible for audits and leadership review?
Defensibility comes from being able to show where a number came from and what changed since. SalaryCube builds that record into the tools that consume the data:
Version history and audit trails on every pay range
Range Builder keeps full version history and audit trails, so you can show which benchmark, which percentile recipe, and which market snapshot produced a range, and what changed when it was refreshed.
Product detailsA three-layer decision model in merit cycles
Comp Planning puts internal position data, your benchmark ranges, and market context side by side in every manager worksheet, with AI-assisted recommendations and a full audit trail.
Product detailsAudit-ready FLSA classification reports
FLSA Analyzer walks each role through a guided questionnaire and produces audit-ready PDF reports with transparent reasoning for every exempt or non-exempt call.
Product details
Security posture. SalaryCube completed a SOC 2 Type I audit in July 2026, with a Type II audit in progress, and provides its SOC 2 report to customers under NDA.
Read the security and SOC 2 overviewFrequently Asked Questions
Which SalaryCube products run on this data?
Real-time data feeds every workflow: Bigfoot Live and DataDive Pro supply daily-updated market data; AI Job Match turns any job description into a benchmark in seconds; Range Builder turns benchmarks into defensible pay ranges; Comp Planning turns ranges into merit cycles with budgets and audit trails; FLSA Analyzer keeps classifications compliant. One platform from market data to pay decision.
See the data on your own roles
Try SalaryCube free: benchmark 5 of your roles and run 2 live market searches. No credit card. No data upload required.