A few years ago, it dawned on me that I was driving to Detroit—80 miles each way–nearly every weekend. Why? Because there was nothing to freaking do in the city I lived in and Detroit seemed to have it all: concerts of every size and genre, live professional sporting events, awesome bars and restaurants.

I mean, I once went to a show in the basement of a small club and stood there, mouth agape, watching Questlove on the turntables as Black Thought rapped along on the mic while the rest of the Roots Crew sat smirking at a nearby table, all in the company of only about 100 other people. (In case you’re wondering who Questlove, Black Thought, and the rest of the Roots are, you may know them better as the house band for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.”) That kind of magical musical experience never happened to me in all my extensive travels: not in New York, or Chicago, or Miami, or Toronto.

Then, a month later, a similar thing happened, only this time it involved the rapper Common. (Disclaimer: I’m a huge fan of hip-hop.) “Wow,” I thought. “It’s official. Detroit is the coolest city I’ve ever been to!”

So, to heck with it, I thought. I’m moving to Detroit. Yes, Dad—DETROIT. Detroit can be a hard sell to melanin-deficient Michiganders who cling to perceptions rooted in 1967 and its aftermath. But, as I tell everyone—in fact, it may even be part of my official Xconomy bio—moving to Detroit was the best decision I made in a decade.

I love my job. My neighborhood is off-the-wall just the way I like it, full of artists, students, and all-around colorful characters. I can walk or bike to my bank, my hair salon, my bakery, my dive bar of choice, and my favorite music venue. I met a nice man a block from my apartment, fell in love, and moved with him to a bigger apartment down the street. Detroit has been very, very good to me.

It seems I’m not the only one feeling the love. Forbes reports that, according to Careerbliss.com, Detroit is the sixth happiest city in the United States. It earned points based on data from thousands of employee-generated reviews between 2010 and 2011. Young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years’ experience in a full-time position, were asked to rate eight factors that affect workplace happiness, including growth opportunities, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, career advancement, senior management, job security, and whether they would recommend their employer to others.

It’s not too late for you to join the party down here in Detroit. Although you missed Quicken Loan’s career fair last weekend, there are more job fairs coming soon. Don’t forget: Detroit has more tech jobs than almost anywhere in the nation.

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Looks like Microsoft is officially tired of having people poached by the Silicon Valley raiders setting up shop in its backyard. CEO Steve Ballmer’s new memo on employee compensation changes, in wide circulation this morning, looks somewhat like the Redmond, WA-based software giant’s version of Google’s abrupt companywide raise-and-bonus combo of late last year.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is making this move after several years of watching San Francisco Bay Area companies establish beachheads in Seattle to recruit talent. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been in the Northwest since 2004 and keeps on growing, saying that it ended 2010 with about 800 people in the Puget Sound area.

Salesforce.com, a direct Microsoft competitor on certain business software, recently moved into expanded offices and has been tied up in a non-compete lawsuit with Redmond over its hiring of a Microsoft employee. Meanwhile, IT infrastructure company Splunk started its Seattle offices with Microsoft veteran Brad Lovering, and two of the first hires at Facebook’s Seattle office were from—you guessed it—Microsoft.

Ballmer’s memo does what we in the news business call “burying the lede”—he starts off talking a lot about rejiggering the review process. Let’s face it: Most employees in any large company will eventually come to hate their reviews, and probably will no matter how you structure them. The real meat of the memo—first reported by GeekWire from what I can tell—is in the take-home pay.

Ballmer’s email, which Microsoft has confirmed as authentic with ZDNet, said the company is “increasing our investment in compensation across the board.” Ballmer called the changes, which take effect in September, “the most significant investment in overall compensation we have ever made.”

Specifically, Ballmer wrote that all employees would see some of their stock compensation converted into up-front cash—probably welcome, considering that a Microsoft stock is still well below its roughly $37 high of a few years ago, and isn’t making anyone rich in the way it did 15 years ago. The changes also would mean possible merit raises for all employees, raises targeted at specific job categories and cities “where the market has moved the most,” and more money overall set aside for raises and stock awards. Also, don’t forget that in 2013, Microsofties are going to have to start paying for part of their healthcare benefits for the first time.

Also significantly, Ballmer ended with a bit of rah-rah that seemed intended to quell the criticism that Microsoft is a lumbering behemoth that can’t get out of its own way enough to do inspiring things: “Through our history, we have been THE place people came when they wanted to make a difference in the world through software, hardware and services. This is as true today as it has been at any time in our history, and the changes we’re rolling out today will help ensure Microsoft continues to be the place that top talent comes to change the world.”

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The average salary for U.S. company workers rose throughout 2007 and 2008, fell during 2009, and held fairly steady in 2010. By the fourth quarter of last year, average earnings had leveled off to approximately what they were at the start of 2008. But there were some variations between different parts of the country.

That’s all according to a national survey released today by PayScale, a Seattle-based firm that collects and organizes salary and compensation data across companies, geographies, and industries. The survey tracks total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees.

The national trend (see gray curve in chart below) shows that U.S. wages grew 5.4 percent from 2006 through the end of 2008. Wages decreased by about 1.4 percent during the recession in 2009, reaching their lowest point in the third quarter of that year. Average U.S. earnings have been pretty flat throughout 2010, roughly matching the level of the first quarter of 2008. (The curves are calculated in terms of PayScale’s “index”—see the methodology here—so the absolute wage numbers aren’t as important as the trend—or the comparisons among different regions of the country, which we’ll get to below.)

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The PayScale Index: Boston Metro Area vs. National (US)

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

Boston Metro Area National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

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The trends for the Boston metro area (red curve above) have tracked the national stats fairly closely. For the first three quarters of 2010, Boston wages trailed the U.S. average (by as much as 0.6 percent); but in the fourth quarter, Boston has caught up.

Here are the wage comparisons for Xconomy’s other metro areas, and some quick observations:

—Seattle-area wages also have matched the national trend, but Seattle’s wages have been consistently higher than the U.S. average by 1-2 percent (see red curve below).

The PayScale Index: Seattle Metro Area vs. National (US)

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

Seattle Metro Area National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

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—Detroit wages fell precipitously in 2009, to more than 3 percent below the national average (which was also falling). The trend since then has been more volatile than the U.S. trend, with another drop during 2010, followed by an upward swing in the most recent quarter (see red curve below).

The PayScale Index: Detroit Metro Area vs. National (US)

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

Detroit Metro Area National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

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—San Diego earnings typically have been above the U.S. average, until the most recent quarter, which showed a big drop. At the end of 2010, wages were 2.2 percent below what they were a year earlier—and the lowest they’ve been in three and a half years (see red curve below).

The PayScale Index: San Diego Metro Area vs. National (US)

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

San Diego Metro Area National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

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—San Francisco Bay Area wages were higher than the U.S. average until the end of 2008, when they started to fall in line with the national stats. In the most recent two quarters, Bay Area wages dropped noticeably and were about 1 percent lower than a year earlier (see red curve below).

The PayScale Index: San Francisco Metro Area vs. National (US)

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

San Francisco Metro Area National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

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If you’re feeling squeezed by the recession, you’re obviously not alone. Since the bottom fell out of the economy in 2009, the Detroit metro area in particular has been struggling to regain its footing when it comes to jobs and wages. Now, after a promising start to 2010, things might be heading downhill again.

That’s according to a national survey this month conducted by PayScale, a Seattle-based firm focused on collecting and organizing salary and compensation data across companies, geographies, and industries.

The Detroit numbers indicate that the region trailed significantly behind the national trend in wage growth between 2006 and the first quarter of 2008. Then, from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, the average wage in Detroit fell by 3.1 percent (see chart below). Wages improved somewhat at the end of 2009 and through the first quarter of this year, but have fallen again for the past two quarters.

The PayScale Index: National (US) vs. Detroit Metro Area

The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

National (US) Detroit Metro Area

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

The above curves were calculated in terms of PayScale’s “index” (see the methodology here, which involves tracking total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees). So the absolute wage numbers aren’t as important as the trend—or the comparisons among different regions of the country (which you can see and interact with here).

Bottom line: Wages might get a little worse before they get better, or at least stabilize, in Detroit.

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San Jose, CA-based Xactly, which makes software for automating the tracking of commission-based compensation for sales staff, has raised $7.5 million in equity-based financing in a round that could total as much as $12.5 million, according to a regulatory filing published today. The identities of the investors weren’t disclosed, and Xactly representatives were not immediately available to comment on the funding. But the filing lists representatives from Alloy Ventures, Bay Partners, Informatica, Key Venture Partners, and Rembrandt Ventures as Xactly directors.

[Update, August 3, 2010] In an announcement today, Xactly pegged the final amount of its venture round at $12 million, and said funders included strategic investor Salesforce, as well as new investor Bridgescale Partners and existing investors Alloy Ventures, Bay Partners, Cheyenne Partners, Glynn Capital Management, Outlook Ventures, and Rembrandt Ventures.

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Whether you’re a startup founder, Fortune 500 executive, or average Joe on the street, everyone is wondering what 2010 will look like for jobs and compensation. Indications so far are not good. Unemployment rates are sky-high. Salary freezes are still rampant. At the same time, nobody can seem to agree on how to pay executives what they’re really worth. ($23 billion in bonuses to Goldman Sachs employees?)

I took the opportunity to talk about some of these issues with the leadership at PayScale, a Seattle company that provides real-time compensation data to employers and employees, through what it calls “the world’s largest database of individual compensation profiles.” From where he sits, PayScale CEO Mike Metzger has an intriguing view of current trends in “human capital,” which I loosely define to include the talent flow, skill sets, experience, and compensation levels associated with creating economic value.

PayScale also announced a new board member today. She is Robin Ferracone, the CEO of RAF Capital, executive chair of Farient Advisors, and an expert in human resources with more than 25 years of consulting experience. Ferracone, who’s based in the Los Angeles area, has made a modest but undisclosed investment in PayScale, according to the company. (Metzger and Ferracone first met through another board member, Patricia Nakache from Trinity Ventures.)

“It’s a very interesting business,” Ferracone says. “When you get pay data directly from the consumers, you then get information about the individual. What PayScale does is it’s able to fill in the gaps about jobs that don’t get picked up by surveys.” That includes things like salaries across different offices and geographic regions for a given company, say—all updated continuously instead of once or twice a year.

PayScale was founded in 2002 and has been backed by Fluke Venture Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Trinity Ventures, and others. A year ago, the company raised a $2 million Series C funding round. Metzger says PayScale’s staff now numbers in the “high 40s,” and that the company is not yet profitable, but is “driving hard” for profitability in 2010. He adds that it is coming off its best year and best quarter ever, in terms of revenue.

Here are the top three trends that Metzger and Ferracone are seeing in human capital as we head into 2010. (Metzger prefaced his comments with the caveat that PayScale sells its aggregated data mainly to small and medium-size businesses, so his view is biased towards those customers, versus Fortune 1000 companies.)

1. 2010 will not revert “back to normal.”

A lot of organizations in 2009 froze their compensation adjustments, says Metzger. “Flat was the new up. One of the themes we’re starting to hear now is that in 2010, things will not go back to normal.” That means companies are “beginning to sharpen the lens they’re using relative to the cost of human capital” and “taking a conservative posture in when they’ll make adjustments.”

The days of across-the-board pay increases plus merit bonuses seem to be gone for good. Overall, Metzger calls the situation “a little bit of a reset in terms of comp adjustment strategy.” And Ferracone adds, “We’re seeing [companies] not trying to make up for lost time, on the salary front.”

2. Talent is still in high demand in certain fields.

It’s not like nobody’s hiring. “There continue to be sectors and geographies where there are high demands for talent—IT in the Bay Area, nursing everywhere, and accounting in major metro … Next Page »

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Portland, OR-based research and publishing firm Clean Edge released a report today on job trends in the cleantech and energy industry. The highlights include a survey of salaries across a range of cleantech positions worldwide, performed in partnership with Seattle-based PayScale, the salary comparison firm. For example, the survey tracked median salaries for solar energy installers ($40,000), entry-level wind turbine technicians ($52,600), mid-level LEED-certified green architects ($58,700), and smart-grid hardware design engineers ($87,700). The survey also found that business analysts in green industries earned $61,500—13 percent more than non-green analysts—and senior accountants in green industries earned $67,300, or 16 percent more than their non-green counterparts.

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Xconomy has learned that Seattle-based PayScale has raised $2 million in a Series C round of venture funding. The investors in this round were not disclosed. A company spokesman confirmed the deal.

PayScale was founded in 2000 by Joe Giordano, and in the past has been backed by Fluke Venture Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Trinity Ventures, and other investors. The website launched in 2002, and provides online compensation data for employees, businesses, and job-seekers.

PayScale’s business model differs from the usual advertising-revenue plan. As CEO Mike Metzger explained last fall, the company uses a “give-get” model in which customers provide information about themselves in exchange for salary information about workers in any given job sector. PayScale also packages aggregated information and sells it to businesses. As for future revenue streams, Metzger said back in September that he wouldn’t rule out “very focused and targeted” advertising.

The company sent the following statement via e-mail: “PayScale continues to build momentum as the leader in real-time, targeted compensation data for consumers and businesses.”

PayScale had record sales and user traffic in the fourth quarter, the company said. Almost 8 million unique visitors came to the company’s sites in the period, and it added new customers such as Dole Foods, General Dynamics, Merck, the U.S. Postal Service, and Zappos.com. PayScale received the new funding to continue its growth, the company said.

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Lowell, MA-based Centive, whose software helps managers track and calculate commission-based compensation for sales representatives, has been purchased by San Jose, CA-based Xactly for an undisclosed sum, the companies said last week. Centive, founded in 1997, had raised more than $92 million in venture funding from the likes of Key Venture Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and Venture Strategy partners, according to Mass High Tech. It’s one of several Boston-area companies offering on-demand versions of its software through the Salesforce AppExchange.

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First, the good news: salaries and bonuses for key employees of privately held firms in life sciences and information technology went up virtually across the board in the past year. Now, the not-so-good news: New England high-tech executives are in the middle of the pack (or lower) in compensation when compared to their peers around the country.

These are a couple of the conclusions that leap out—well, in some cases you have to dig them out—of the 2007 Compensation and Entrepreneurship Report in Life Sciences and a similarly named study in Information Technology that were officially released today. The annual studies were conducted by the J. Robert Scott executive search agency, law firm WilmerHale, and Ernst & Young, in conjunction with academics at Harvard Business School. I looked at the full, 84- and 72-page versions of the studies that are distributed primarily for participants. Released today for general consumption were scaled-down versions of the reports, but there’s a lot more in even the condensed versions than we can cover here.

The studies, based on surveys of some 1,000 key employees in life sciences and 1,200 in IT, looked at privately held companies by such parameters as financing round, revenue size, industry segment, and geography. They covered a variety of key jobs (13 in life sciences, 10 in IT), from CEO to head of human resources. Data about founder-execs was stripped out of the general survey and put into a separate section of the report, largely because founder compensation runs all over the map and it’s hard to draw conclusions from it (although, not surprisingly, founders get more equity—read on). All told, the survey covered 166 life-sciences and medical-device firms, and 244 information technology companies (just over half them were software firms). Roughly half the companies in each bucket had completed two or fewer rounds of financing—and a clear majority had fewer than 40 employees.

I’ve made lists below of CEO compensation by industry category and geography. But here are some basic observations. For starters, if you are a life sciences/medical devices CEO, you’re in a good place, compared to your IT counterparts. The average non-founder life sciences/medical devices CEO is earning a 2007 base salary of $281,000, a 3.9 percent increase from the 2006 average of $270,000. In IT, by contrast, the average CEO base salary is $227,000, up from 217K the year before.

Bonuses, of course, form a key part of the mix—and here, the IT execs have the potential to do a bit better. … Next Page »

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