Los Angeles County / Alternate Public Defender / Psychiatric Social Worker I
Job-title file
Assess client needs, develop service plans, and connect people with support resources.
11 employees hold this title in Alternate Public Defender. Median total compensation for the role is $126,245, below the department median of $227,420.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 11 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers — about 9,380 people — is $78,410. Alternate Public Defender pays a median base salary of $85,323 for this role, 9% above that figure — about the 56th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers across every employer in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Alternate Public Defender’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers — about 132,810 people — is $60,280. Alternate Public Defender’s median base salary is 42% above that national figure, about the 78th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Alternate Public Defender is $129,432, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare departments
Psychiatric Social Worker I is held in 12 Los Angeles County departments. In Alternate Public Defender, the median of $126,245 ranks #4 of 12.
Median total compensation for the Psychiatric Social Worker I role in other Los Angeles Countydepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 5 jurisdictions. In Los Angeles County, the median of $155,217 ranks #1 of 5. See Psychiatric Social Worker across all of Los Angeles County →
Median total compensation for comparable Psychiatric Social Workerroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
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Psychiatric Social Worker I/Alternate Public Defender
At Alternate Public Defender, Jacqueline Alcaraz serves as a Psychiatric Social Worker I. Their 2025 pay totaled $142,642.