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The differences between quality controls and quality associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a quality associate has an average salary of $50,300, which is higher than the $32,824 average annual salary of a quality control.
The top three skills for a quality control include quality checks, product quality and safety standards. The most important skills for a quality associate are patients, QA, and quality system.
| Quality Control | Quality Associate | |
| Yearly salary | $32,824 | $50,300 |
| Hourly rate | $15.78 | $24.18 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 83,496 | 60,168 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
As the name entails, the job of a quality control inspector is to inspect, maintain, and improve the quality and standard of products. They are responsible for ensuring the company's reputation is not damaged due to defective products or inferior manufacturing processes. This can be done by detecting and resolving the problem early on, and returning the product for repair. A quality control inspector should also notify the supervisors immediately when issues arise and coordinate with them to address the problem.
A quality associate is responsible for ensuring that a new product meets standards for usage and operating. You will perform various tasks that include assisting in identifying quality problems and improving operational processes, writing, disseminating, and maintaining quality documentation and manuals, and verifying logs and databases to monitor and flag quality issues and improvements. In addition, you are responsible for supporting document control and quality audits, reviewing reports and validation protocols, and investigating and diagnosing quality complaints.
Quality controls and quality associates have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Quality Control | Quality Associate | |
| Average salary | $32,824 | $50,300 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $31,000 And $80,000 |
| Highest paying City | Fremont, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Nevada | Connecticut |
| Best paying company | BD | JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a quality control and a quality associate in terms of educational background:
| Quality Control | Quality Associate | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Business | Biology |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between quality controls' and quality associates' demographics:
| Quality Control | Quality Associate | |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.5% Female, 45.5% | Male, 44.8% Female, 55.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.5% Unknown, 5.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.8% Asian, 10.4% White, 56.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% | Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 16.7% Asian, 11.6% White, 55.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |