Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between quality control specialists 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 $49,281 average annual salary of a quality control specialist.
The top three skills for a quality control specialist include GMP, patients and customer service. The most important skills for a quality associate are patients, QA, and quality system.
| Quality Control Specialist | Quality Associate | |
| Yearly salary | $49,281 | $50,300 |
| Hourly rate | $23.69 | $24.18 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 100,535 | 60,168 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A quality control specialist is responsible for maintaining the quality of the products during production before storing for use and deliveries. Quality control specialists evaluate the products through internal specifications and processes. They conduct thorough inspections of finished products to identify any inconsistencies and malfunctions, immediately replacing or reproducing defective items. They also create a record of production issues to discuss with the management, developing strategic procedures to address quality problems for accuracy. A quality control specialist must have excellent communication skills, as well as be detail-oriented to identify areas of improvement and ensure customer satisfaction.
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 control specialists and quality associates have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Quality Control Specialist | Quality Associate | |
| Average salary | $49,281 | $50,300 |
| Salary range | Between $32,000 And $75,000 | Between $31,000 And $80,000 |
| Highest paying City | Rockville, MD | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Maryland | Connecticut |
| Best paying company | Apple | JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
| Best paying industry | Automotive | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a quality control specialist and a quality associate in terms of educational background:
| Quality Control Specialist | Quality Associate | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Business | Biology |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between quality control specialists' and quality associates' demographics:
| Quality Control Specialist | Quality Associate | |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 48.3% Female, 51.7% | Male, 44.8% Female, 55.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 5.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 10.4% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% | 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% |