Metrics guide
Metrics guide
Definitions for SunshineList.org employer, sector, role-family, and ranking pages. Metrics are designed for serious civic reading of Ontario public salary disclosure records.
- Disclosed records
- Public salary disclosure rows. A disclosed record is not necessarily one unique employee or one full-time job.
- Salary paid
- The salary amount reported in Ontario public salary disclosure for a disclosed record. It is not total compensation.
- Taxable benefits
- The taxable benefits amount reported for a disclosed record. It is not total benefits, pension value, or a complete benefits measure.
- Median disclosed salary
- The middle salary-paid value among disclosed records in the selected employer, sector, role family, or site-wide view.
- Average disclosed salary
- Salary paid divided by disclosed-record count for the selected view. It can be affected by role mix and outliers.
- Disclosed payroll
- The sum of salary paid across disclosed records in a selected view. It is not total employer payroll or total sector payroll.
- Salary bands
- Grouped salary-paid ranges used to summarize distribution among disclosed records.
- Role-family analysis
- Platform-generated grouping of position titles into broad analytical families. Labels are heuristics and not official Ontario fields.
- Employer peer comparison
- A comparison of employer disclosed-record metrics with other employers, read with sector, scale, role mix, and source-year context.
- Sector comparison
- A comparison of disclosed-record metrics across sectors. Sector totals reflect disclosure coverage, employer composition, role mix, and scale.
- Benefits-to-salary ratio
- Taxable benefits divided by salary paid for a selected view. It uses disclosed taxable benefits only.
Responsible use and limits
Disclosure records require context: disclosed records are not the same as employees; salary paid is not total compensation; taxable benefits are not total benefits; role-family labels are platform-generated heuristics where applicable; comparisons require sector, employer scale, role mix, and source-year context.
- Disclosed records are not the same as employees.
- Salary paid is not total compensation.
- Taxable benefits are not total benefits.
- Role-family labels are platform-generated heuristics where applicable.
- Comparisons require sector, employer scale, role mix, and source-year context.
- Disclosed payroll is not total employer or sector payroll.
What this page does not conclude
- It does not assess performance, value, efficiency, quality, conduct, or compensation fairness.
- It does not prove a trend from one year of disclosure.
- It does not explain individual employment circumstances, overtime, retroactive payments, or partial-year effects.
- It does not replace source review, methodology, or correction context.
Source and citation
- Page title
- Metrics guide
- Canonical URL
- https://sunshinelist.org/metric-dictionary/
- Source year
- 2025
- Last updated
- 2026-06-16T17:11:45.821Z
Suggested citation: SunshineList.org. ‘Metrics guide.’ Ontario Public Compensation Intelligence, 2025 disclosure year. Based on Ontario public salary disclosure records. Accessed 2026-06-16.