What Culpepper and Associates does

Culpepper and Associates, Inc. is a privately-held, family-owned compensation data and consulting firm founded in 1979 (some sources state 1980) and headquartered at 3820 Mansell Road, Alpharetta, Georgia. The company sells subscription-based global compensation surveys spanning eight specialized verticals — Executive, Engineering, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Operations, Professional Services, Sales, and Technology — plus a Salary Budget Survey covering 160+ countries, totaling over 1,200 executive, 350+ operations, 190+ technology, 140+ life science, and 90+ engineering and healthcare job families. Underlying technology is a cloud-based compensation survey platform with customizable reporting, data cuts, statistical metrics, and you-to-market comparisons; the 2025 launch of Culpepper Now added real-time benchmarking from millions of active job postings, with AI and deep analytics applied to data integrity and anomaly detection, verified by credentialed compensation specialists.

Revenue is generated through annual subscription licenses structured in tiered offerings from Standard Data Licenses to Premium Licenses with professional survey services, with quote-based pricing adjusted to organization size, job functions, and country coverage. A complementary Compensation Consulting Services line delivers strategy development, job analysis, custom market analysis, salary structure design, pay equity analysis, and co-sourcing engagements. Distribution is primarily direct sales to enterprise HR and total-rewards teams, supplemented by an inside-sales motion via the website and a partner channel with Bettercomp, CompTool, Gradar, HRSoft, Merit Analytics Group, and Payscale. The customer base includes Fortune 500 and large enterprise logos across healthcare, life sciences, retail, airlines, telecom, technology, and non-profit sectors, with disclosed multi-year tenures (six years or more) cited as evidence of stickiness. The firm is led by CEO Leigh Culpepper with Founder Warren Culpepper serving as Chairman Emeritus, and operates with 51–100 employees.

Name

Culpepper and Associates

Legal name

Culpepper and Associates, Inc.

Website

https://culpepper.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Culpepper and Associates is a privately-held, family-owned firm that provides subscription-based global compensation survey data and consulting services across eight industry verticals and 70+ countries, serving HR and total-rewards teams at large enterprises and Fortune 500 organizations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Compensation Benchmarking & Data Services

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Compensation, Benefits & Rewards Consulting (BPAHAGAF)

Keywords

• Compensation surveys
• Salary benchmarking
• Compensation consulting
• Pay equity analysis
• Market pricing data

Headquarters

HQ city

Alpharetta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Compensation Survey Subscriptions: Subscription-based access to global compensation survey data with flexible license tiers (standard to premium) customized by job functions, geographic coverage, and support levels. Pricing varies based on organization size and survey scope.
2. Compensation Consulting Services: Customized consulting engagements including strategy development, job analysis, market analysis, salary structure design, pay equity analysis, and co-sourcing arrangements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Culpepper and Associates provides global compensation survey data and consulting services to organizations. Its core offering consists of multiple specialized compensation surveys (Executive, Engineering, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Operations, Professional Services, Sales, and Technology), a Salary Budget Survey, a bundled Complete Compensation Survey Solution, and Compensation Consulting Services for strategy and structure design. Data is delivered through a cloud-based reporting platform with customizable cuts and filters, with Culpepper Now adding real-time benchmarking from active job postings.

Product overview

Culpepper and Associates is a compensation data and consulting services firm offering a unified platform of compensation benchmarking products. The core offering consists of eight specialized compensation surveys (Executive, Engineering, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Operations, Professional Services, Sales, and Technology), each covering job-specific compensation data across multiple job families. These can be accessed individually or bundled through the Complete Compensation Survey Solutions. A complementary Salary Budget Survey provides annual planning data. The portfolio is supplemented by Compensation Consulting Services for strategy development and implementation, and Culpepper Now (launched 2025) which adds real-time market intelligence from active job postings to complement the traditional participant-submitted survey data. All products share a common cloud-based reporting platform with customizable outputs, data cuts, filters, and you-to-market comparisons.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Culpepper Now: Latest benchmarking solution delivering salary, hourly pay, and benefits data from millions of active job postings, complementing trusted participant compensation survey data

Products and services

• Compensation Surveys Global compensation surveys providing market data for a diverse range of jobs and industries, with outputs covering base salaries, pay ranges, allowances, short- and long-term incentives, hourly pay, and shift differentials. Targeted at HR and compensation professionals at organizations of all sizes.
• Technology Compensation Survey Global compensation data for technology jobs covering more than 190 technology job families, including AI, analytics, data science, information systems, software development, and technical product management roles.
• Professional Services Compensation Survey Global compensation data for consulting and professional services talent covering more than 30 job families, including business, engineering, and technology consulting roles.
• Sales Compensation Survey Global compensation data for sales talent covering more than 50 sales job families, including sales executives, management, operations, and representatives.
• Operations Compensation Survey Global compensation data for operations and administrative talent covering more than 350 job families, including accounting, HR, marketing, supply chain, and production roles.
• Executive Compensation Survey Global compensation data for executive and leadership positions covering more than 120 executive job families across top executives, operations, consulting, engineering, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, non-profit, sales, and technology domains.
• Engineering Compensation Survey Global compensation data for engineering and design talent covering more than 90 job families, including architecture, civil, chemical, electrical, industrial, manufacturing, mechanical, and medical device engineering roles.
• Healthcare Compensation Survey Compensation data for healthcare and health plan organizations covering more than 90 healthcare operations job families, including billing, revenue cycle, pharmacy, quality, compliance, staffing, and provider operations roles.
• Life Sciences Compensation Survey Global compensation data for life science and clinical talent covering more than 140 job families, including biotech, pharma, pre-clinical R&D, clinical R&D, regulatory affairs, laboratory services, and research informatics roles.
• Salary Budget Survey Global salary budget survey providing market data and trends for salary increase budgets, salary structures, incentive budgets, and compensation planning. Covers over 160 countries with data published year-round.
• Complete Compensation Survey Solutions Comprehensive bundled access to the full global compensation database and cloud reporting tools across all job function surveys (Executive, Operations, Sales, Technology, Engineering, Healthcare, Life Sciences).
• Compensation Consulting Services Advisory services including strategy and policy development, job analysis and benchmarking, custom market analysis, cost impact analysis, salary structure design and audit, internal pay equity analysis, and compensation co-sourcing. Targeted at organizations seeking expert guidance on compensation program design.
• Culpepper Now Real-time benchmarking solution delivering salary, hourly pay, and benefits data from millions of active job postings to complement traditional participant-based survey data, providing an up-to-date view of pay trends across jobs and industries.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 45 years of trusted compensation benchmarking experience
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• BettercompcoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic partnership providing complementary executive compensation data and benchmarking solutions. Bettercomp's executive compensation platform integrates with Culpepper's broader compensation survey offerings.
• CompToolcoreTechnology or IntegrationCompensation planning and analytics tool partnership providing integrated compensation management solutions alongside Culpepper's market data services.
• GradarcoreTechnology or IntegrationJob leveling and career framework partnership enabling organizations to better map internal job structures to Culpepper's survey job families and benchmarking data.
• HRSoftcoreTechnology or IntegrationHR technology partnership providing integrated compensation management, budgeting, and analytics capabilities with Culpepper's market compensation data.
• Merit Analytics GroupcoreTechnology or IntegrationCompensation analytics and intelligence partnership providing advanced analytical capabilities and insights leveraging Culpepper's compensation survey data.
• PayscalecoreTechnology or IntegrationMarket pricing and compensation benchmarking partnership providing complementary market pricing data alongside Culpepper's participant-sourced survey data.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Salary.com: Direct peer offering compensation data, salary benchmarking reports, and HR compensation software. Comparable to Culpepper in serving HR and compensation teams with survey data plus analytics, and competes in overlapping enterprise accounts.
• CompTool: Compensation planning and analytics tool that integrates with Culpepper. It serves the same enterprise comp teams with planning and modeling capabilities that augment survey data, making it both a named integration partner and direct functional competitor.
• HRSoft: Compensation management, budgeting, and analytics software provider listed as a Culpepper partner. Overlaps with Culpepper's compensation analytics and consulting offerings, addressing enterprise Total Rewards teams with adjacent product categories.
• Payscale: Direct competitor in cloud-based compensation market pricing and benchmarking data. Payscale is one of Culpepper's named strategic partners but is also the most direct functional competitor in subscription comp data, covering overlapping HR and total rewards use cases.
• Radford (Aon): Technology and life sciences compensation survey leader inside Aon. Offers the same kind of specialized job-family surveys (Technology, Engineering, Executive) that compete directly with Culpepper's Tech, Engineering, and Executive surveys for the same HR buyers.
• Bettercomp: Executive compensation benchmarking platform listed as a Culpepper strategic partner. Direct functional overlap in executive compensation data and analytics, addressing the same Compensation Committee and Total Rewards buyers.

Broad incumbents

• Mercer: Global HR consulting incumbent with extensive compensation survey libraries across industries and geographies. Mercer is a broader incumbent than Culpepper, but its compensation benchmarking products address the same enterprise HR buyers and often head-to-head against Culpepper's offerings.
• WTW (Willis Towers Watson): Global advisory firm offering compensation surveys, total rewards consulting, and HR software. WTW is a broad incumbent in the compensation data and consulting category where Culpepper competes for midsize and large enterprise deals.
• Aon: Global professional services firm with Radford compensation surveys and a broad HR consulting practice. Aon sits above Culpepper in scale but overlaps in compensation benchmarking products sold to the same enterprise HR audience.

Emerging players

• Levels.fyi: Real-time crowdsourced compensation platform, especially strong in technology roles. Comparable to Culpepper Now's real-time job-posting benchmarking thesis; an emerging disruptor on timeliness and tech-talent data that targets the same compensation decision-maker.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/culpepper-and-associates-inc
• Xx.com/culpeppercomp

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Culpepper and Associates