Compared with the local labor market
Social Worker pay vs. the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area
Across all employers in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area, the median wage for Social Workers, All Other — about 1,440 people — is $85,080. Department of Correction pays a median base salary of $52,447 for this role, 38% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Department of Correction sits in the local pay range
$58,810
$67,550
$85,080
$101,650
$118,350
Department of Correction median · $52,447
The bar is the range of annual wages for Social Workers, All Other across every employer in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Department of Correction’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Social Workers, All Other — about 62,930 people — is $71,900. Department of Correction’s median base salary is 27% below that national figure, about the 26th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$43,620
$51,900
$71,900
$97,040
$115,610
Department of Correction median · $52,447
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 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 6 of 7 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 Department of Correction is $42,733, 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.