Los Angeles County / Public Defender / Psychiatric Social Worker II
Job-title file
Assess client needs, develop service plans, and connect people with support resources.
43 employees hold this title in Public Defender. Median total compensation for the role is $149,458, below the department median of $178,093.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 43 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. Public Defender pays a median base salary of $95,713 for this role, 22% above that figure — about the 66th 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 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. Public Defender’s median base salary is 59% above that national figure, about the 85th 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.
Computed over the 54 of 60 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Public Defender is $141,459, 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 II is held in 11 Los Angeles County departments. In Public Defender, the median of $149,458 ranks #9 of 11.
Median total compensation for the Psychiatric Social Worker II 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 II/Public Defender
Wendy Sanchez is a Psychiatric Social Worker II at Public Defender. 2025 total compensation came to $17,683.
Psychiatric Social Worker II/Public Defender
John Valenzuela Jr holds the role of Psychiatric Social Worker II at Public Defender. In 2025, their total compensation was $15,386.
Psychiatric Social Worker II/Public Defender
Yajaira Rodriguez holds the role of Psychiatric Social Worker II at Public Defender. In 2025, their total compensation was $11,954.