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A place-to-place survey is a statistical activity used to obtain and process benchmark data for establishing the post adjustment index (PAI). The PAI resulting from a place-to-place survey ensures purchasing power parity of salaries of professional staff serving at any given duty station relative to that of their counterparts in New York. For headquarters duty stations, a place-to-place survey is conducted approximately every five years. Between rounds of surveys, purchasing power parity of salaries is approximated by updating the PAI to account for inflation (once a year), and exchange-rate fluctuations (every month).