What Does a Recreation Specialist Do?

We looked at the average recreation specialist annual salary and compared it with the average of a day camp counselor. Generally speaking, day camp counselors receive $9,802 lower pay than recreation specialists per year.

While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both recreation specialists and day camp counselors positions are skilled in cpr, social work, and safety procedures.

As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because a recreation specialist responsibility requires skills such as "customer service," "recreation programs," "rehabilitation," and "recreational facilities." Whereas a day camp counselor is skilled in "kids," "cleanliness," "pet," and "direct supervision." So if you're looking for what truly separates the two careers, you've found it.

Day camp counselors tend to make the most money in the education industry by averaging a salary of $34,530. In contrast, recreation specialists make the biggest average salary of $35,035 in the hospitality industry.

Day camp counselors tend to reach similar levels of education than recreation specialists. In fact, day camp counselors are 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

The next role we're going to look at is the camp counselor profession. Typically, this position earns a lower pay. In fact, they earn a $14,846 lower salary than recreation specialists per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Recreation specialists and camp counselors both include similar skills like "cpr," "safety procedures," and "recreational facilities" on their resumes.

But both careers also use different skills, according to real recreation specialist resumes. While recreation specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "recreation programs," "rehabilitation," and "social work," some camp counselors use skills like "kids," "role model," "child care," and "core values."

It's been discovered that camp counselors earn lower salaries compared to recreation specialists, but we wanted to find out where camp counselors earned the most pay. The answer? The education industry. The average salary in the industry is $29,249. Additionally, recreation specialists earn the highest paychecks in the hospitality with an average salary of $35,035.

When it comes to the differences in education between the two professions, camp counselors tend to reach similar levels of education than recreation specialists. In fact, they're 3.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is activities director. On an average scale, these workers bring in higher salaries than recreation specialists. In fact, they make a $5,796 higher salary per year.

Using recreation specialists and activities directors resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "cpr," "customer service," and "rehabilitation," but the other skills required are very different.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from recreation specialists resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "recreation programs," "social work," "safety procedures," and "recreational facilities." But a activities director might have skills like "patients," "resident care," "home health," and "mds."

Additionally, activities directors earn a higher salary in the health care industry compared to other industries. In this industry, they receive an average salary of $41,547. Additionally, recreation specialists earn an average salary of $35,035 in the hospitality industry.

Activities directors are known to earn similar educational levels when compared to recreation specialists. Additionally, they're 0.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Now, we'll look at program leads, who generally average a higher pay when compared to recreation specialists annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $61,541 per year.

While both recreation specialists and program leads complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like cpr, customer service, and developmental disabilities, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a recreation specialist might have more use for skills like "recreation programs," "rehabilitation," "social work," and "safety procedures." Meanwhile, some program leads might include skills like "project management," "hr," "work ethic," and "customer satisfaction" on their resume.

The average resume of program leads showed that they earn similar levels of education to recreation specialists. So much so that the likelihood of them earning a Master's Degree is 2.5% more. Additionally, they're more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.9%.