Compared with the local labor market
Principal Payroll Clerk pay vs. New Jersey
Across all employers in New Jersey, the median wage for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks — about 4,290 people — is $60,750. Human Services pays a median base salary of $42,708 for this role, 30% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Human Services sits in the local pay range
$42,990
$50,440
$60,750
$73,350
$84,990
Human Services median · $42,708
The bar is the range of annual wages for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks across every employer in New Jersey, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Human Services’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerks — about 153,140 people — is $58,260. Human Services’s median base salary is 27% below that national figure, about the 16th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$39,500
$47,990
$58,260
$69,600
$81,350
Human Services median · $42,708
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 New Jersey range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Human Services is $43,400, 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.