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Line manager vs team leader

The differences between line managers and team leaders can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a line manager and a team leader. Additionally, a team leader has an average salary of $68,817, which is higher than the $56,406 average annual salary of a line manager.

The top three skills for a line manager include client facing, continuous improvement and service line. The most important skills for a team leader are customer service, ladders, and patients.

Line manager vs team leader overview

Line ManagerTeam Leader
Yearly salary$56,406$68,817
Hourly rate$27.12$33.09
Growth rate6%8%
Number of jobs369,491197,336
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 56%Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Average age4443
Years of experience66

What does a line manager do?

As line managers, they oversee other employees and the business operations while reporting to a higher manager. They play a significant role in the operation of the business from supervising and managing workers daily and acting as a link to upper management and employees. It is part of their responsibility to recruit and hire talent to fill team positions, provide training and learning to new hires, and ensuring that the employees are doing their jobs effectively and efficiently.

What does a team leader do?

Team leaders are responsible for managing a team for a specific project or work component. They primarily guide the team members and ensure that they are still working towards the set goals. Team leaders create strategies to reach goals, cascade the goals and strategies to team members, assign tasks, conduct periodic check-ups on the roadmap towards the goals, foster an engaging work environment, motivate and coach team members, monitor team performance, evaluate the strategies and come up with mitigating plans as needed. They are also responsible for reporting the team's progress to higher management.

Line manager vs team leader salary

Line managers and team leaders have different pay scales, as shown below.

Line ManagerTeam Leader
Average salary$56,406$68,817
Salary rangeBetween $27,000 And $116,000Between $37,000 And $126,000
Highest paying CityNew Brunswick, NJNew York, NY
Highest paying stateNew JerseyAlaska
Best paying companyMicrosoftRopes & Gray
Best paying industry--

Differences between line manager and team leader education

There are a few differences between a line manager and a team leader in terms of educational background:

Line ManagerTeam Leader
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 56%Bachelor's Degree, 50%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaSUNY College of Technology at Delhi

Line manager vs team leader demographics

Here are the differences between line managers' and team leaders' demographics:

Line ManagerTeam Leader
Average age4443
Gender ratioMale, 64.7% Female, 35.3%Male, 55.0% Female, 45.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 14.9% Asian, 6.3% White, 67.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 7.2% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage10%9%

Differences between line manager and team leader duties and responsibilities

Line manager example responsibilities.

  • Lead the team in successfully meeting FDA and GMP requirements.
  • Manage project developing integration and process flows for fab expansion doubling the area and moving to a larger wafer.
  • Manage team of database administrators, database technicians and systems administrators responsible for maintaining all production, development and QA systems.
  • Define and enforce GMP's to subordinates.
  • Train in FDA standards for food industry.
  • Establish and measure KPI's ensuring all departments maintain the highest levels of performance.
  • Show more

Team leader example responsibilities.

  • Manage ACD metrics and methodology, including reporting to Sr. Management.
  • Set the highest standards for achieving company s KPIs, and holding staff individually accountable thereof.
  • Lead and conduct daily port operations for all DOD cargo transiting through the state of Florida.
  • Manage inventory and stock groceries, clothes and office supplies, handle supplies requests, revise logbook.
  • Implement multiple tools and utilities (KaiZen ideas) to optimize and automate various processes across the projects.
  • Manage online tasks, delegate and oversee responsibilities and projects, work with HTML coding, and update site content.
  • Show more

Line manager vs team leader skills

Common line manager skills
  • Client Facing, 11%
  • Continuous Improvement, 7%
  • Service Line, 6%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 6%
  • Direct Reports, 5%
  • Process Improvement, 4%
Common team leader skills
  • Customer Service, 26%
  • Ladders, 9%
  • Patients, 6%
  • Sales Floor, 6%
  • PET, 5%
  • Safety Procedures, 4%

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