Reward teams who already use Brightmine, or are weighing it up, ask whether lumi does the same job. It does not, and this page sets out the difference: what each covers, where the data comes from, what each one leaves out, and when you would use one, the other, or both.
lumi benchmarks everything in reward except base salary: pensions, leave, family policy, health and protection, wellbeing, incentives and recognition, benefits and allowances, and the governance around pay. It is not a salary benchmarking tool, and nothing on this page should be read as a comparison of pay data.
The short answer
- If you need pay data and HR law and compliance content from one supplier, Brightmine offers both: UK pay benchmarks that it says rest on over 1 million employer-submitted records, updated monthly, beside employment law guidance and compliance content.
- If you need to see your own reward policy and benefits placed against UK organisations like yours, metric by metric, with the sample size on every figure, lumi does that, and only that.
- Many reward teams use both: a salary source for pay levels, and a peer benchmark for the rest of the package.
At a glance
| lumi | Brightmine | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Reward policy and benefits, 423 metrics across eight areas, excluding base salary | HR law and compliance content; UK pay benchmarks; pay equity analytics; a benefits and allowances survey series |
| Where the data comes from | UK organisations that contribute their own policy data, quality-assured against published UK sources | Pay benchmarks: over 1 million employer-submitted records, updated monthly, it says |
| Geography | UK only | UK, on its UK site (it also runs Netherlands and US sites) |
| Peer groups | All peers, your sector, your size band; every figure shows its n | Pay by job function and sector: 485 job functions in 27 sectors |
| Smallest sample shown | Three employers; below that the card is hidden | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Salary data | None, by design | Yes: salary, bonus and benefits benchmarks |
| Pricing | Free access until 31 March 2027; founding places on a short form; £5,000 + VAT a year from April 2027 | On quote ("a custom plan"); no prices on the pages we read |
What Brightmine does
Brightmine says it "brings together employment law, reward and HR expertise to help organisations make consistent, compliant and defensible workplace decisions". It is part of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a RELX business, and its products are three:
- HR & Compliance Centre: HR insights, legal guidance and compliance data, with employment law updates under its Service Guarantee.
- Compensation Planning: UK pay benchmarks. Brightmine says they are "based on over 1 million employer-submitted records updated monthly", let you compare pay across 485 job functions in 27 sectors, and support salary, bonus and benefits decisions.
- Pay Equity Analytics: workflows to identify and address pay gaps across gender, ethnicity and disability, including UK gender pay gap reporting.
Its HR benchmarking service also includes a benefits and allowances survey series, described in our comparison of benefits benchmarking sources. Brightmine sells on quote.
Brightmine total rewards · Brightmine products
Good for: UK employers that want pay benchmarks by job function and sector, pay gap analysis and HR law content from one supplier.
Limits: the pages we read publish no prices, and do not say how many organisations the pay records come from or the smallest sample a benchmark is shown on. Its benefits coverage is a survey series reported question by question, not your own package placed against a peer group.
What lumi does
lumi is a UK-only member community. Each member answers a common question set about its own reward policy and structure, and in return sees how its answers compare with a peer group of other UK organisations: all peers, its sector, or its size band. Coverage runs across eight areas of reward. Every figure carries the number of organisations behind it, and nothing is shown where fewer than three employers answered.
Good for: UK employers who want one view of their whole package against organisations like them, with the evidence behind every figure, kept in one place; reward teams who need to take a case to a board with the sample size on it.
Limits:
- lumi does not benchmark base salary levels. That is deliberate. You will need a pay data source alongside it.
- It is UK only.
- It presents where you sit and what the trade-offs are. It does not tell you what to do: we flag, you decide.
- Results appear only where enough organisations have answered; smaller bases are suppressed.
- Members contribute their own data, which takes time at the outset. A guided session for the first submission is optional.
Where each fits
- Pay levels: Brightmine, or another salary source. lumi has none.
- Policy and benefits against a peer group: lumi.
- HR law and compliance content: Brightmine, through its HR & Compliance Centre. lumi publishes free guides, checked at source, but it is not a legal reference service.
- The whole package in one place, with the base on every figure: lumi, with a salary source beside it.
Common questions
Does lumi replace Brightmine? No. lumi does not provide salary data or HR law content. It benchmarks reward policy and benefits against a UK peer group. Brightmine covers benefits through a survey series on benefits and allowances, reported question by question, and supports benefits decisions in its pay benchmarks; lumi places your own policy against a peer group, metric by metric.
Can I use both? Yes. Many reward teams use a salary source for pay levels and a peer benchmark for the rest of the package. lumi exports every figure with its source, so the two sit side by side in one board paper.
Does lumi include salary data? No. lumi covers reward policy and structure only.
Talk it through
See where your organisation sits on everything except pay, against UK employers like yours. Book a call