How To Become A Payroll Supervisor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a payroll supervisor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

If you are the payroll supervisor, you will review payroll, ensure compliance with all local, state, and federal government regulations. You will work extensively with finances in a detail-oriented environment. You will also select, orient, train, assign, schedule, counsel, and discipline employees as to their pay. You may also need to communicate job expectations, monitoring and appraise job contributions.

You are the most important person in the organization, and you need to be a detail-oriented supervisor, be a good communicator, and work as part of a team. You will need high integrity. In addition, you will need a high school diploma or GED, or possibly have a bachelor's degree in accounting or finance, and you can earn an annual average salary of $62,000 per year.

ScorePayroll SupervisorUS Average

Salary

5.0

Avg. Salary $64,422

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.52%

Asian 6.04%

Black or African American 9.74%

Hispanic or Latino 18.38%

Unknown 6.07%

White 58.24%

Gender

female 78.69%

male 21.31%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a payroll supervisor

Explore payroll supervisor education requirements

Most common payroll supervisor degrees

Bachelor's

57.3 %

Associate

24.7 %

High School Diploma

7.5 %

Start to develop specific payroll supervisor skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	8.79%
Payroll System	5.83%
Payroll Tax	5.12%
Reconciliations	4.52%
Human Resources	4.46%

Complete relevant payroll supervisor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New payroll supervisors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a payroll supervisor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real payroll supervisor resumes.

Research payroll supervisor duties and responsibilities

Manage the administration and processing of KRONOS time reporting system.
Manage installation of automate timekeeping systems in facilities, ensuring accurate, timely processing of time and attendance information.
Act as the HRIS backup running queries and reports as scheduled and upon request via PeopleSoft for management and key stakeholders.
Create journal entries and account reconciliations for key benefit programs and maintain account reconciliations of liability accounts.

Prepare your payroll supervisor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your payroll supervisor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a payroll supervisor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable payroll supervisor resume templates

Build a professional payroll supervisor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your payroll supervisor resume.