Real salary data
What HR Specialists actually earn in 2026.
The median for HR Specialist is $75,000 across 1757 real salary records (H-1B visa filings and tech job postings), updated Aug 10, 2026.
01 / By source
Real salary bands, by source.
Bands come from 1757 real records. Each source has a different bias, disclosed below.
Density curve fitted to the observed quartiles (log-normal). $60,000–$106,500 contains the middle 50% of records in the best-represented source; the shape between them is an approximation.
| Source | Records | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-1B visa filings | 1,757 | $60,000 | $75,000 | $106,500 |
- H-1B visa filings (DOL) — over-represents visa-eligible roles (typically high-skill, high-wage)
Salary data updated Aug 10, 2026. Bands are percentiles, not averages; n is the number of underlying records.
02 / By city
What HR Specialists earn, by city.
Real records; cities with at least 10 observations.
| City | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 174 | $72,075 – $130,000 | $92,477 |
| San Jose, CA | 55 | $99,124 – $151,500 | $127,864 |
| Seattle, WA | 40 | $91,702 – $137,432 | $112,548 |
| Austin, TX | 38 | $77,126 – $113,895 | $92,500 |
| Houston, TX | 33 | $60,000 – $117,425 | $86,653 |
| Bellevue, WA | 29 | $104,000 – $133,000 | $127,000 |
| Chicago, IL | 29 | $70,000 – $155,014 | $112,505 |
| Dallas, TX | 27 | $61,000 – $104,800 | $74,027 |
| San Francisco, CA | 24 | $114,372 – $154,000 | $129,688 |
| Atlanta, GA | 22 | $69,225 – $109,761 | $80,000 |
| Jersey City, NJ | 20 | $59,538 – $85,914 | $74,540 |
| Sunnyvale, CA | 20 | $96,959 – $178,100 | $115,466 |
03 / By state
What HR Specialists earn, by state.
| State | Records | Range (p25–p75) | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA | 324 | $68,474 – $130,375 | $92,026 |
| NY | 234 | $70,008 – $119,500 | $85,000 |
| NJ | 226 | $60,000 – $90,000 | $72,000 |
| TX | 216 | $60,000 – $110,626 | $73,611 |
| WA | 97 | $82,577 – $133,000 | $120,000 |
| VA | 70 | $64,753 – $78,206 | $78,146 |
| GA | 69 | $56,555 – $84,490 | $70,158 |
| FL | 66 | $56,600 – $80,000 | $63,856 |
| IL | 59 | $49,554 – $112,505 | $65,000 |
| MA | 45 | $63,502 – $90,000 | $70,000 |
| NC | 36 | $63,000 – $78,250 | $70,750 |
| MI | 26 | $60,000 – $71,115 | $63,200 |
04 / Context
How HR Specialists pay compares with similar roles.
| Profession | Risk | Median | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Office Clerk | High | $44,190 | -6.7% (2024–34) |
| Journalist | Medium | $68,700 | -3.9% (2024–34) |
| Market Research Analyst | High | $80,700 | +6.7% (2024–34) |
| Marketing Manager | Medium | $170,000 | +6.6% (2024–34) |
05 / Next step
How to move up the pay band.
The skills below appear most often in higher-paid roles:
- udemyServiceNow Certified Implementation Specialist - HR (CIS-HR)Intermediate
- udemyHR Generalist Advanced: From Specialist to Strategic HR [EN]Advanced
- udemyCertified Artificial Intelligence Engineer (CAIE) TestsIntermediate
- udemyCertified Artificial Intelligence Engineer CAIE Prep PrepIntermediate
- udemyCareer Training: Career DevelopmentIntermediate
- udemyCertified Career Transition SpecialistIntermediate
- udemyCareer Development & BrandingIntermediate
- udemyThe Complete Career Coaching Course - Career DevelopmentIntermediate
06 / FAQ
Salary questions, answered.
01Why are the bands different from the BLS median?
The BLS median covers all HR Specialist in the US. These bands come from real records with known biases — H-1B filings skew to visa-eligible (high-skill) roles and tech postings skew to tech employers — so they sit above the national median. We disclose the source of every band.
02How often is this data updated?
The dataset refreshes weekly from live job postings and quarterly from new H-1B disclosures.