Compensation Specialist Overview
Compensation Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a compensation specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $32.57 an hour? That's $67,751 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 5,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Compensation Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many compensation specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, business skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a compensation specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.5% of compensation specialists included compensation programs, while 9.4% of resumes included human resources, and 7.9% of resumes included job descriptions. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the compensation specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most compensation specialists actually find jobs in the health care and insurance industries.
How To Become a Compensation Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a compensation specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.8% of compensation specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 21.3% of compensation specialists have master's degrees. Even though most compensation specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a compensation specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a compensation specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on compensation specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a compensation specialist. In fact, many compensation specialist jobs require experience in a role such as compensation analyst. Meanwhile, many compensation specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as administrative assistant or human resources coordinator.
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Compensation Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of human resources manager you might progress to a role such as director of human resources eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title human resources vice president.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Compensation Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Parsons Corporation SR. Compensation Specialist: Data Quality & Reporting SR. Compensation Specialist: Data Quality & Reporting | Parsons Corporation Parsons Corporation | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $89,50001/15/2021 $89,500 |
Kelly Services Compensation Specialist Compensation Specialist | Kelly Services Kelly Services | 12/19/2020 12/19/2020 | $37,56612/19/2020 $37,566 |
Robert Half Compensation Specialist Compensation Specialist | Robert Half Robert Half | 11/03/2020 11/03/2020 | $39,65311/03/2020 $39,653 |
Cherokee Nation Compensation Specialist I Compensation Specialist I | Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation | 10/27/2020 10/27/2020 | $33,78910/27/2020 $33,789 |
Empire Southwest LLC Compensation Hris Specialist Compensation Hris Specialist | Empire Southwest LLC Empire Southwest LLC | 09/23/2020 09/23/2020 | $44,05009/23/2020 $44,050 |
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Top Colleges for Compensation Specialists
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
4. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
5. SUNY College at Oswego
Oswego, NY • Public
6. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
7. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
8. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
9. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
10. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
Top Skills For a Compensation Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.5% of compensation specialists listed compensation programs on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and business skills are important as well.
- Compensation Programs, 18.5%
- Human Resources, 9.4%
- Job Descriptions, 7.9%
- Customer Service, 6.9%
- Hris, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 52.3% See All Compensation Specialist Skills
Best States For a Compensation Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a compensation specialist. The best states for people in this position are California, Rhode Island, New York, and New Hampshire. Compensation specialists make the most in California with an average salary of $83,166. Whereas in Rhode Island and New York, they would average $80,208 and $79,678, respectively. While compensation specialists would only make an average of $78,103 in New Hampshire, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$76,532
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$75,030
Avg. Salary
3. Delaware
$76,559
Avg. Salary
How Do Compensation Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Compensation Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ compensation specialists and discovered their number of compensation specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that MetLife was the best, especially with an average salary of $72,565. United States Postal Service follows up with an average salary of $50,533, and then comes Texas Mutual Insurance Company with an average of $79,149. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a compensation specialist. The employers include Atlassian, Purdue University, and Equitrans Midstream Corporation
Compensation Specialist Videos
