Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between support specialists and child support specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a support specialist, becoming a child support specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a support specialist has an average salary of $40,782, which is higher than the $38,271 average annual salary of a child support specialist.
The top three skills for a support specialist include customer service, patients and mental health. The most important skills for a child support specialist are customer service, social work, and child support cases.
| Support Specialist | Child Support Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $40,782 | $38,271 |
| Hourly rate | $19.61 | $18.40 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 125,740 | 143,623 |
| Job satisfaction | 3 | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
A support specialist is responsible for assisting technical and administrative support, depending on the business need. Support specialists must have extensive knowledge of the services of the organization they work for to assist customers with their inquiries and resolve complaints efficiently. A support specialist maintains documents of issue resolution, providing recommendations to improve business strategies and procedures. Support specialists must be well-versed on technology systems, perform basic troubleshooting, and secure databases. They should also have impeccable customer service and communication skills to attend with customers' needs and requests.
A child support specialist is primarily in charge of monitoring child support payments, ensuring individuals with financial obligations comply with the legal settlement terms. They mainly work in the legal industry, where their responsibilities include assessing the clients' financial situations, gathering and analyzing financial statements, performing interviews and follow-up calls, and producing regular progress reports. Furthermore, as a child support specialist, it is essential to maintain records of all transactions and procedures, resolving issues and concerns should there be any.
Support specialists and child support specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Support Specialist | Child Support Specialist | |
| Average salary | $40,782 | $38,271 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $64,000 | Between $29,000 And $49,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Rockville, MD |
| Highest paying state | New York | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | University of Rochester |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Government |
There are a few differences between a support specialist and a child support specialist in terms of educational background:
| Support Specialist | Child Support Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Most common major | Business | Psychology |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between support specialists' and child support specialists' demographics:
| Support Specialist | Child Support Specialist | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 38.4% Female, 61.6% | Male, 19.9% Female, 80.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.5% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 10.4% White, 56.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 13.4% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 15.1% Asian, 2.7% White, 63.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.5% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 10% |