Payroll analyst vs senior payroll specialist

The differences between payroll analysts and senior payroll specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a payroll analyst and a senior payroll specialist. Additionally, a senior payroll specialist has an average salary of $59,503, which is higher than the $54,217 average annual salary of a payroll analyst.

The top three skills for a payroll analyst include customer service, payroll system and payroll data. The most important skills for a senior payroll specialist are peoplesoft, payroll data, and reconciliations.

Payroll analyst vs senior payroll specialist overview

	Payroll Analyst	Senior Payroll Specialist
Yearly salary	$54,217	$59,503
Hourly rate	$26.07	$28.61
Growth rate	-3%	-3%
Number of jobs	15,555	6,310
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	4	4

What does a payroll analyst do?

A payroll analyst is primarily in charge of overseeing a company's payroll processes and transactions, ensuring efficiency and timeliness. Their responsibilities typically revolve around coordinating with human resources for accurate and complete timesheets and employee data, managing calendars and schedules, calculating wages and deductions, and performing consistent audits. There are also instances when a payroll analyst must perform clerical tasks such as processing documents, prepare progress reports, and respond to employee inquiries. Furthermore, it is essential to report to managers should there be any issues and concerns.

What does a senior payroll specialist do?

Senior payroll specialists are professionals who are responsible for calculating the wages of employees of an organization accurately. These specialists are required to analyze and verify payroll reports and documents for accuracy while making the necessary corrections through journal entries or other established procedures. They must authorize and review payroll transactions as well as complete appropriate forms to adjust salary account funds. Senior payroll specialists must also conduct training sessions for other payroll professionals to explain information regarding payroll policies and procedures.

Payroll analyst vs senior payroll specialist salary

Payroll analysts and senior payroll specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Payroll Analyst	Senior Payroll Specialist
Average salary	$54,217	$59,503
Salary range	Between $39,000 And $74,000	Between $42,000 And $82,000
Highest paying City	Olympia, WA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Washington	New Jersey
Best paying company	Varian Medical Systems	MongoDB
Best paying industry	Technology	Technology

Differences between payroll analyst and senior payroll specialist education

There are a few differences between a payroll analyst and a senior payroll specialist in terms of educational background:

	Payroll Analyst	Senior Payroll Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 58%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Payroll analyst vs senior payroll specialist demographics

Here are the differences between payroll analysts' and senior payroll specialists' demographics:

	Payroll Analyst	Senior Payroll Specialist
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 24.2% Female, 75.8%	Male, 23.2% Female, 76.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.1% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 18.6% Asian, 6.1% White, 57.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.5%	Black or African American, 9.8% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 18.1% Asian, 6.0% White, 58.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.5%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between payroll analyst and senior payroll specialist duties and responsibilities

Payroll analyst example responsibilities.

Manage all activities relate to base pay, overtime, PTO, garnishments and payroll tax.
Perform monthly accounting functions including journal entries, general ledger account reconciliations, benefit and salary accruals, and headcount reconciliations.
Create PowerPoint slides to train new timekeepers and managers in KRONOS.
Lead functional tester in support of timekeeping, payroll and labor upgrades and conversion projects.
Support the third-party web applications like KRONOS and custom-built time entry systems to input the time data
Enter new hires, terminations, and employee maintenance changes into HRIS & ADP including process employee benefit elections.

Senior payroll specialist example responsibilities.

Manage payroll imports into and out of HRIS, including master file and pay data additions and changes.
Update the maintenance of all job-relate records in the KRONOS timekeeping system, for all employees.
Perform thorough analysis of UltiPro timekeeping system prior to uploading to the payroll system on a biweekly basis.
Process payroll using ADP/ KRONOS for multiple companies.
Load pay changes for pay period into UltiPro.
Process regular wages, overtime wages, PTO, tips and toke incomes, etc.

Payroll analyst vs senior payroll specialist skills

Common payroll analyst skills

Customer Service, 11%
Payroll System, 6%
Payroll Data, 4%
Human Resources, 4%
Reconciliations, 4%
Data Entry, 3%

Common senior payroll specialist skills

PeopleSoft, 15%
Payroll Data, 5%
Reconciliations, 4%
HRIS, 4%
ADP Workforce, 3%
Data Entry, 3%

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Payroll Analyst vs Senior Payroll Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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