# Payscale vs Pave: which do AI models recommend for pay equity, September 2026

HR AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Pay equity. Two of twelve models named Payscale first on the direct prompt; zero named Pave. Page: https://hr-ai-index.com/rewards/pay-equity/payscale-vs-pave/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payscale | 14% | #2 of 9 | 3% | 34 | 12 of 12 |
| Pave | 10% | #4 of 9 | 0% | 12 | 8 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Perplexity Sonar: payscale first (first choices: Payscale) (alternatives: Aeqium, Compport, PayAnalytics)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: payscale first (first choices: Payscale) (alternatives: Barley, Compport, Salary.com Pay Equity, Syndio)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: Syndio) (alternatives: PayAnalytics, Payscale, beqom)
- Mistral Small: neither first, one named (first choices: PayAnalytics) (alternatives: Barley, Payscale, Salary.com, Syndio, Trusaic PayParity)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Syndio) (alternatives: Aeqium, HiBob, Pave, PayAnalytics, Trusaic PayParity)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: PayAnalytics, Syndio) (alternatives: ChartHop, Pave, Trusaic PayParity)
- Kimi K2: neither first, one named (first choices: Syndio) (alternatives: Payscale, Trusaic PayParity)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Aeqium) (alternatives: ChartHop, Compport, Figures, HiBob, Pave, PayAnalytics, Salary.com CompAnalyst, Syndio)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither first, one named (first choices: PayAnalytics, Syndio) (alternatives: Payscale, Trusaic PayParity)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named (first choices: OpenComp) (alternatives: Barley, CompUp, Compport, Comprehensive.io, HRSoft, Ravio)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither named (first choices: PayAnalytics, Pequity) (alternatives: Syndio, Workleap Compensation)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named

## What the models said about Payscale

- "Repeated complaints about a clunky, outdated interface, a steep learning curve, data inaccuracy for niche roles... don't buy it purely for equity." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.