City of San Jose / Retirement Services / Accountant I
Job-title file
Maintain financial records, prepare budgets and reports, and ensure compliance with fiscal rules.
1 employee holds this title in Retirement Services. Median total compensation for the role is $127,606, below the department median of $132,202.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area, the median wage for Accountants and Auditors — about 13,180 people — is $121,700. Retirement Services pays a median base salary of $105,499 for this role, 13% below that figure — about the 34th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Accountants and Auditors across every employer in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Retirement Services’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Accountants and Auditors — about 1,449,500 people — is $83,680. Retirement Services’s median base salary is 26% above that national figure, about the 71st 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Retirement Services is $125,291, 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
Accountant I is held in 5 City of San Jose departments. In Retirement Services, the median of $127,606 ranks #4 of 5.
Median total compensation for the Accountant I role in other City of San Josedepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 38 jurisdictions. In City of San Jose, the median of $141,841 ranks #3 of 38. See Accountant across all of City of San Jose →
Median total compensation for comparable Accountant roles 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.
Same department
Record list
Page 1
Accountant I/Retirement Services
Source-specific fields
At Retirement Services, Nga Nguyen serves as a Accountant I. Their 2025 pay totaled $127,606.