California / Assistant Chief
Role across California
Assistant Chief
Lead staff and operations — set priorities, allocate resources, and oversee program delivery.
378 people hold the Assistant Chief role across 1 department in California, with a median total compensation of $224,317. Among 4 jurisdictions where this role is reported, California ranks #2 by median pay.
- Employees
- 378
- Median pay
- $224,317
- Departments
- 1
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #2 of 4
Compared with the local labor market
Assistant Chief pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers — about 8,170 people — is $127,630. California pays a median base salary of $183,032 for this role, 43% above that figure — about the 81st percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where California sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers 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 First-Line Supervisors of Firefighting and Prevention Workers — about 99,140 people — is $93,530. California’s median base salary is 96% above that national figure, above the 90th 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 296 of 378 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 $224,317, 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
Assistant Chief pay in other jurisdictions
Where Assistant Chiefs are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Assistant Chief 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.