There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior payroll specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.47 an hour? That's $59,211 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 72,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many senior payroll specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, math skills and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior payroll specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 22.7% of senior payroll specialists included payroll, while 17.7% of resumes included peoplesoft, and 4.4% of resumes included tax returns. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the senior payroll specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior payroll specialists actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
If you're interested in becoming a senior payroll specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 49.0% of senior payroll specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.5% of senior payroll specialists have master's degrees. Even though most senior payroll specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a senior payroll specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a senior payroll specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior payroll specialist resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior payroll specialist. In fact, many senior payroll specialist jobs require experience in a role such as payroll specialist. Meanwhile, many senior payroll specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as payroll administrator or payroll manager.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of payroll manager you might progress to a role such as human resources manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title regional human resources manager.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Senior Payroll Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Senior Payroll Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Senior Payroll Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationPhiladelphia, PA • Private
Evanston, IL • Private
Los Angeles, CA • Private
Vestal, NY • Public
Villanova, PA • Private
San Diego, CA • Public
Waltham, MA • Private
Farmingdale, NY • Public
Boston, MA • Private
Stony Brook, NY • Public
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.7% of senior payroll specialists listed payroll on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and math skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior payroll specialist. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Wyoming, California, and New Jersey. Senior payroll specialists make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $76,254. Whereas in Wyoming and California, they would average $74,230 and $72,270, respectively. While senior payroll specialists would only make an average of $71,203 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$76,254
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$71,086
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$68,753
Avg. Salary