Compared with the local labor market
Financial Accountant III pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Accountants and Auditors — about 175,360 people — is $97,050. Public Employee's Retirement Systems pays a median base salary of $108,917 for this role, 12% above that figure — about the 60th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Public Employee's Retirement Systems sits in the local pay range
$61,770
$75,810
$97,050
$125,850
$160,520
Public Employee's Retirement Systems median · $108,917
The bar is the range of annual wages for Accountants and Auditors across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Public Employee's Retirement Systems’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. Public Employee's Retirement Systems’s median base salary is 30% above that national figure, about the 74th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$56,020
$67,020
$83,680
$109,810
$144,090
Public Employee's Retirement Systems median · $108,917
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 52 of 54 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 Public Employee's Retirement Systems is $112,337, 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
Financial Accountant III is held in 3 California departments. In Public Employee's Retirement Systems, the median of $134,318 ranks #3 of 3.
Highest-paying departments for this role
Median total compensation for the Financial Accountant III role in other Californiadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
Financial Accountant beyond California
This role is reported in 4 jurisdictions. In California, the median of $112,637 ranks #1 of 4. See Financial Accountant across all of California →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
Median total compensation for comparable Financial 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.