If compensation were merely a matter of dollars and cents, small business would lose every time to big companies that can afford generous pension and health plans. But that's not how it works in real life, say experts on pay and benefits. Some very talented people simply refuse to work for a big corporation because they value the flexibility and sense of being in charge that comes from working at a small company.

The upshot, says Howard Edelstein, a consultant with Todd Organization in Cleveland, is that you don't necessarily have to pay more than Microsoft. You just have to make sure your offer is better than what other small businesses offer.

The hard part is determining whether your offer is in line with those of your rivals. After all, you can't exactly ask them, and if you rely on job applicants for such data, you'll probably wind up overpaying.

So with the help of the Economic Research Institute in Redmond, Wash., we've put together some salary benchmarks for a typical small business. ERI maintains a nationwide salary and compensation database that's often used by compensation experts and by litigators to pinpoint average salaries. Director Brianna Bennitt points out that these averages can vary widely based on region and on size of the company. With that in mind, we've included data for several major national markets.

For jobs not listed in our benchmarks, you can consult salary surveys for particular industries, which are conducted by various trade publications and compensation experts. Check out our list of links for more details.

As for fringe benefits, such as health and retirement plans, most surveys say small-business participation is spotty. A good strategy here is to identify the benefits most commonly found at small businesses and then make sure all or most of them are in your package. To find out what you have to meet or beat, check out our list of benefit benchmarks.