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Pay · 27-3031

Public Relations Specialists earn $74,750 a year at the midpoint

Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 3.1 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $74,750.

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$74,750median a year · United States
$35.94an hour $84,120average 283,380people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$56,26025th $74,750median $100,37075th
$44,11010th percentile $135,15090th percentile
$56,260a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$102,740best-paying state · District of Columbia
$56,730lowest-paying state · West Virginia
+37%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 $102,740 in District of Columbia and $56,730 in West Virginia — a gap of $46,010 a year.

Public relations specialist earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Resumes for public relations specialists

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WordPressHubSpot softwareCanvaAdobe Creative Cloud softwareAdobe InDesignGoogle AnalyticsAdobe PhotoshopMarketo Marketing Automation
  • Responded to requests for information from the media or designate an appropriate spokesperson or information source.
  • Planned or directed development or communication of programs to maintain favorable public or stockholder perceptions of an organization's accomplishments, agenda, or environmental responsibility.
  • Posted and updated content on the company's Web site and social media outlets.

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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.

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Public relations specialist wages by state

The 38 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.79 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
District of Columbia $102,740 $64,260 $64,260 — $202,170 16,720
Washington $87,470 $60,760 $60,760 — $136,020 6,430
California $85,030 $49,550 $49,550 — $160,520 32,710
Connecticut $84,990 $51,410 $51,410 — $162,280 1,910
New York $81,250 $51,730 $51,730 — $157,610 28,250
Colorado $80,680 $51,710 $51,710 — $139,040 7,410
Virginia $80,380 $46,840 $46,840 — $162,050 9,990
New Jersey $80,130 $49,820 $49,820 — $138,190 4,980
Massachusetts $79,660 $51,710 $51,710 — $139,240 6,760
Maryland $79,560 $42,060 $42,060 — $147,220 4,190
Illinois $76,380 $47,690 $47,690 — $139,570 6,200
Oregon $74,900 $45,190 $45,190 — $123,880 4,510
Nevada $73,840 $44,710 $44,710 — $120,160 1,600
Georgia $73,200 $43,590 $43,590 — $128,190 6,860
Minnesota $68,620 $42,220 $42,220 — $111,180 8,260
Wisconsin $67,240 $44,790 $44,790 — $105,970 4,410
North Carolina $67,230 $39,840 $39,840 — $136,450 9,910
Arizona $66,710 $45,080 $45,080 — $111,220 5,350
Michigan $65,300 $38,560 $38,560 — $117,290 7,510
Texas $65,160 $39,840 $39,840 — $109,640 25,220
Oklahoma $64,920 $39,380 $39,380 — $113,780 2,280
Indiana $64,900 $42,060 $42,060 — $105,580 3,750
Kansas $64,860 $39,820 $39,820 — $105,500 2,340
Ohio $64,840 $41,540 $41,540 — $121,460 6,670
Hawaii $63,880 $42,070 $42,070 — $104,240 1,800
Montana $63,780 $43,770 $43,770 — $96,050 1,760
Florida $63,660 $37,000 $37,000 — $115,680 17,820
Iowa $62,970 $38,890 $38,890 — $104,700 2,890
South Carolina $62,730 $38,920 $38,920 — $143,940 2,950
Utah $62,670 $41,410 $41,410 — $119,270 1,800
Maine $62,450 $38,890 $38,890 — $100,770 1,400
Nebraska $61,780 $41,490 $41,490 — $93,990 1,590
Alabama $61,710 $39,320 $39,320 — $111,970 2,410
Missouri $61,130 $38,490 $38,490 — $102,850 4,820
Tennessee $60,900 $37,450 $37,450 — $98,370 3,380
Louisiana $60,470 $38,640 $38,640 — $98,610 1,710
Kentucky $60,150 $37,190 $37,190 — $103,530 2,580
Pennsylvania $57,460 $32,810 $32,810 — $102,330 11,180

Number 258 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 67% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 256 Set and Exhibit Designers $75,240
  2. 257 Camera Operators, Television, Video, and Film $74,990
  3. 258 Public Relations Specialists $74,750
  4. 259 Construction and Building Inspectors $74,690
  5. 260 Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians $74,510

Related work, and what it pays

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

Public Relations Specialists$74,750
News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists$62,200−$12,550 Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys$47,340−$27,410

Public relations specialist pay rate, from hourly to yearly

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

$74,755a year

Questions people ask most

What is a public relations specialist’s yearly income?

A public relations specialist makes a median of $74,750 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $56,260 and $100,370.

What is a public relations specialist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $35.94 an hour; the average is $84,120 a year.

What is the starting pay for a public relations specialist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $56,260 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $44,110.

Which state pays public relations specialists the most?

District of Columbia, with a median of $102,740 a year.

How many people work as public relations specialists?

About 283,380 in the United States — number 258 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $410 of what public relations specialists earn — $74,750 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations