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Second-Highest Earner Per Department (ROW_NUMBER)
A pay-equity review wants the second-highest-paid employee in each department as a benchmark for promotion-band calibration.
Use ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY department ORDER BY salary DESC, name ASC) and keep rn = 2. Show department, name, salary. Order by department.
ROW_NUMBER (not RANK) is the right pick here: even if two people in the same department tie at the top salary, you want a single row for "position #2", and ROW_NUMBER guarantees that. The tie-breaker name ASC makes the answer deterministic when salaries tie.
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Schema
employees
| emp_id | name | department | position | salary | hire_date | manager_id | performance_rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alice Johnson | Engineering | Senior Developer | 95000 | 2019-03-15 | 5 | 4.5 |
| 2 | Bob Smith | Engineering | Developer | 75000 | 2020-06-01 | 1 | 3.8 |
| 3 | Carol Williams | Marketing | Marketing Manager | 85000 | 2018-09-20 | NULL | 4.2 |
Expected output: Engineering | Bob | 90000
Hint
SELECT, Window Functions, ROW_NUMBER, and open the hint there if you stall.Concepts
SELECT Window Functions ROW_NUMBER CTE PARTITION BY
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