California / Accounting Technician
Role across California
Accounting Technician
Maintain financial records, prepare budgets and reports, and ensure compliance with fiscal rules.
596 people hold the Accounting Technician role across 31 departments in California, with a median total compensation of $49,614. Among 18 jurisdictions where this role is reported, California ranks #11 by median pay.
- Employees
- 596
- Median pay
- $49,614
- Departments
- 31
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #11 of 18
Compared with the local labor market
Accounting Technician pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks — about 151,870 people — is $59,230. California pays a median base salary of $52,150 for this role, 12% below that figure — about the 33rd percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where California sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows California’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks — about 1,373,680 people — is $50,670. California’s median base salary is 3% above that national figure, about the 53rd 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 California range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 450 of 596 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 California is $49,614, 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 jurisdictions
Accounting Technician pay in other jurisdictions
Where Accounting Technicians are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Accounting Technician roles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.
Within California
Departments with this role
Largest California departments for this role
Departments in California employing the most people in this role. Each bar links to that department’s page for the role.