Compared with the local labor market
Employment Program Representative pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Human Resources Specialists — about 104,000 people — is $83,500. Employment Development Department pays a median base salary of $64,404 for this role, 23% below that figure — about the 23rd percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Employment Development Department sits in the local pay range
$52,770
$66,060
$83,500
$117,430
$151,410
Employment Development Department median · $64,404
The bar is the range of annual wages for Human Resources Specialists across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Employment Development Department’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Human Resources Specialists — about 912,430 people — is $75,940. Employment Development Department’s median base salary is 15% below that national figure, about the 33rd percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$47,180
$58,610
$75,940
$99,380
$128,720
Employment Development Department median · $64,404
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 California range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 2,701 of 4,083 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 Employment Development Department is $54,515, 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
This role across California
Employment Program Representative is held in 2 California departments. In Employment Development Department, the median of $54,515 ranks #2 of 2.
Highest-paying departments for this role
Median total compensation for the Employment Program Representative role in other Californiadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.