What Does a Community Support Specialist Do?

In this section, we compare the average community support specialist annual salary with that of a service worker. Typically, service workers earn a $9,275 lower salary than community support specialists earn annually.

While their salaries may differ, one common ground between community support specialists and service workers are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like social work, mental health, and rehabilitation.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. A community support specialist responsibility is more likely to require skills like "direct services," "severe mental illness," "medicaid," and "community integration." Whereas a service worker requires skills like "customer service," "cleanliness," "patients," and "excellent interpersonal." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

Service workers tend to make the most money in the government industry by averaging a salary of $36,743. In contrast, community support specialists make the biggest average salary of $37,451 in the non profits industry.

Service workers tend to reach lower levels of education than community support specialists. In fact, service workers are 5.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Next up, we have the residential counselor profession to look over. This career brings along a lower average salary when compared to a community support specialist annual salary. In fact, residential counselors salary difference is $5,203 lower than the salary of community support specialists per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Community support specialists and residential counselors both include similar skills like "social work," "mental health," and "rehabilitation" on their resumes.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that community support specialist responsibilities requires skills like "direct services," "severe mental illness," "social services," and "medicaid." But a residential counselor might use skills, such as, "autism," "cleanliness," "money management," and "home health."

It's been discovered that residential counselors earn lower salaries compared to community support specialists, but we wanted to find out where residential counselors earned the most pay. The answer? The education industry. The average salary in the industry is $35,120. Additionally, community support specialists earn the highest paychecks in the non profits with an average salary of $37,451.

In general, residential counselors study at similar levels of education than community support specialists. They're 4.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Let's now take a look at the support worker profession. On average, these workers make lower salaries than community support specialists with a $2,281 difference per year.

By looking over several community support specialists and support workers resumes, we found that both roles utilize similar skills, such as "social work," "community resources," and "independent living." But beyond that the careers look very different.

There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a community support specialist is likely to be skilled in "mental health," "rehabilitation," "direct services," and "severe mental illness," while a typical support worker is skilled in "treatment plan," "foster care," "support services," and "criminal justice."

Interestingly enough, support workers earn the most pay in the manufacturing industry, where they command an average salary of $42,658. As mentioned previously, community support specialists highest annual salary comes from the non profits industry with an average salary of $37,451.

Support workers typically study at lower levels compared with community support specialists. For example, they're 5.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The fourth career we look at typically earns lower pay than community support specialists. On average, desk clerks supervisors earn a difference of $7,548 lower per year.

While both community support specialists and desk clerks supervisors complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like mental health, community resources, and independent living, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a community support specialist might have more use for skills like "social work," "rehabilitation," "substance abuse," and "direct services." Meanwhile, some desk clerks supervisors might include skills like "customer service," "home maintenance," "direct support," and "support services" on their resume.

In general, desk clerks supervisors make a higher salary in the finance industry with an average of $32,113. The highest community support specialist annual salary stems from the non profits industry.

In general, desk clerks supervisors reach lower levels of education when compared to community support specialists resumes. Desk clerks supervisors are 7.8% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.