Payroll Clerk I

Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks — about 6,600 people — is $65,040. Sheriff pays a median base salary of $71,502 for this role, 10% above that figure — about the 62nd percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 35 of 39 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in 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 Sheriff is $119,674, 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.

Payroll Clerk I is held in 13 Los Angeles County departments. In Sheriff, the median of $108,536 ranks #8 of 13.

This role is reported in 3 jurisdictions. In Los Angeles County, the median of $118,670 ranks #1 of 3. See Payroll Clerk across all of Los Angeles County →