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Pay · 13-1071

Human resources specialists earn $75,940 a year at the midpoint

One of the largest occupations in the country — about 912,430 people — with a midpoint of $75,940 a year.

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$75,940median a year · United States
$36.51an hour $81,990average 912,430people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$58,61025th $75,940median $99,38075th
$47,18010th percentile $128,72090th percentile
$58,610a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$110,970best-paying state · District of Columbia
$55,010lowest-paying state · Arkansas
+46%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $110,970 in District of Columbia and $55,010 in Arkansas — a gap of $55,960 a year.

Human resources specialist earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%

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Place 249 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 68% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 247 Police and sheriff patrol officers $76,210
  2. 248 Terrazzo Workers and Finishers $76,170
  3. 249 Human resources specialists $75,940
  4. 250 Fire Inspectors and Investigators $75,920
  5. 251 Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary $75,870

Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Human resources specialists$75,940
Project Management Specialists$102,320+$26,380 Management Analysts$101,860+$25,920 Business Operations Specialists, All Other$83,050+$7,110 Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes$82,890+$6,950 Logisticians$82,320+$6,380 Compliance Officers$80,730+$4,790

Human resources specialist pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$75,941a year

Writing a resume for human resources specialists

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Oracle HRISWorkday softwareOracle PeopleSoftADP Workforce NowMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft OutlookHuman resource information system (HRIS)Human resource management software HRMS
  • Interpreted and explained human resources policies, procedures, laws, standards, or regulations.
  • Hired employees and process hiring-related paperwork.
  • Maintained current knowledge of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action guidelines and laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Human resources specialist wages by state

The 46 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.02 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
District of Columbia $110,970 $65,280 $65,280 — $170,330 6,910
Massachusetts $85,630 $57,500 $57,500 — $145,130 27,300
Washington $84,550 $57,030 $57,030 — $136,070 22,770
New York $84,380 $56,040 $56,040 — $149,990 54,610
Maryland $83,910 $54,410 $54,410 — $139,400 15,530
California $83,500 $52,770 $52,770 — $151,410 104,000
Connecticut $82,890 $51,000 $51,000 — $134,810 9,010
Virginia $82,090 $48,530 $48,530 — $136,660 28,540
Colorado $80,840 $51,290 $51,290 — $133,850 19,450
New Jersey $80,690 $56,420 $56,420 — $132,770 21,690
Minnesota $78,760 $50,330 $50,330 — $127,060 17,240
Oregon $78,060 $51,480 $51,480 — $126,280 10,620
Delaware $77,700 $50,960 $50,960 — $132,030 2,720
Rhode Island $77,560 $51,270 $51,270 — $128,250 3,320
Illinois $76,820 $48,980 $48,980 — $123,940 35,430
Hawaii $73,750 $49,110 $49,110 — $113,320 2,570
North Carolina $73,070 $46,760 $46,760 — $126,000 31,140
Utah $71,750 $46,800 $46,800 — $123,780 9,900
Maine $71,630 $45,850 $45,850 — $105,840 3,020
Nevada $71,610 $47,150 $47,150 — $119,050 6,520
Arizona $71,390 $47,290 $47,290 — $112,900 20,230
Kansas $70,870 $47,340 $47,340 — $115,920 7,560
New Hampshire $70,840 $47,700 $47,700 — $122,560 4,270
Georgia $70,570 $44,580 $44,580 — $125,540 32,110
Wisconsin $70,540 $47,860 $47,860 — $105,270 17,360
Pennsylvania $70,450 $46,610 $46,610 — $119,850 36,960
Ohio $70,180 $45,950 $45,950 — $118,340 33,500
Michigan $69,520 $46,580 $46,580 — $110,710 25,520
Kentucky $69,010 $43,690 $43,690 — $107,940 10,900
Texas $68,920 $43,410 $43,410 — $117,060 84,930
New Mexico $68,050 $46,620 $46,620 — $117,170 4,090
Tennessee $67,370 $45,630 $45,630 — $109,990 21,460
Missouri $66,990 $44,730 $44,730 — $110,660 17,650
West Virginia $66,860 $44,490 $44,490 — $115,920 3,130
Iowa $66,710 $45,400 $45,400 — $110,640 7,930
Florida $66,410 $44,920 $44,920 — $115,920 62,730
Indiana $65,600 $44,810 $44,810 — $106,830 17,110
South Carolina $65,370 $46,070 $46,070 — $118,590 13,720
Idaho $64,990 $43,820 $43,820 — $102,490 3,930
Alabama $64,940 $41,890 $41,890 — $112,880 11,080
Montana $63,790 $44,990 $44,990 — $108,180 2,340
Nebraska $61,930 $42,730 $42,730 — $98,480 7,220
Oklahoma $61,630 $39,990 $39,990 — $103,460 9,370
Louisiana $61,300 $39,170 $39,170 — $100,420 7,240
Mississippi $60,300 $38,500 $38,500 — $108,950 4,850
Arkansas $55,010 $32,030 $32,030 — $99,990 6,230

Questions people ask most

What is a human resources specialist’s yearly income?

A human resources specialist makes a median of $75,940 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $58,610 and $99,380.

What is a human resources specialist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $36.51 an hour; the average is $81,990 a year.

What is the starting pay for a human resources specialist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $58,610 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $47,180.

Which state pays human resources specialists the most?

District of Columbia, with a median of $110,970 a year.

How many people work as human resources specialists?

About 912,430 in the United States — number 249 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $500 of what human resources specialists earn — $75,940 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations