---
title: "Compensation and Benefits Manager"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate compensation and benefits activities of an organization."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-and-benefits-manager"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Compensation and Benefits Manager

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-3111 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-3111.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate compensation and benefits activities of an organization.

Also advertised as: Benefits Coordinator; Benefits Director; Benefits Manager; Compensation and Benefits Director; Compensation and Benefits Manager; Compensation Director; Compensation Manager; Employee Benefits Coordinator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $149,230 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $71.75/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $89,160 to $256,570, with the middle half between $113,170 and $200,610
- **Total US employment:** 22,940
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 16/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 22,940 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $89,160 |
| 25th | $113,170 |
| 50th (median) | $149,230 |
| 75th | $200,610 |
| 90th | $256,570 |
| Mean (average) | $162,640 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $199,190 | $186,136 | 460 |
| CT | $197,970 | $191,072 | 480 |
| MA | $184,070 | $174,050 | 670 |
| NY | $175,620 | $162,730 | 2,260 |
| NJ | $168,370 | $154,745 | 950 |
| CA | $166,730 | $150,587 | 2,970 |
| DE | $166,070 | $166,389 | 50 |
| CO | $165,770 | $160,861 | 280 |
| MN | $163,390 | $165,675 | 360 |
| GA | $163,060 | $169,337 | 1,010 |
| OR | $161,470 | $156,219 | 240 |
| DC | $160,990 | $146,486 | 130 |
| VA | $153,660 | $151,982 | Not published by BLS |
| IL | $151,730 | $151,794 | 780 |
| MI | $151,620 | $157,581 | 580 |

31 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 46 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-and-benefits-manager/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/compensation-and-benefits-manager.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 23,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 24,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +1.1%. Slower than average: 1.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 76.2% |
| Master's Degree | 14.3% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 9.5% |

## What the work involves

- Direct preparation and distribution of written and verbal information to inform employees of benefits, compensation, and personnel policies.
- Design, evaluate, and modify benefits policies to ensure that programs are current, competitive, and in compliance with legal requirements.
- Identify and implement benefits to increase the quality of life for employees by working with brokers and researching benefits issues.
- Manage the design and development of tools to assist employees in benefits selection, and to guide managers through compensation decisions.
- Administer, direct, and review employee benefit programs, including the integration of benefit programs following mergers and acquisitions.
- Mediate between benefits providers and employees, such as by assisting in handling employees' benefits-related questions or taking suggestions.
- Formulate policies, procedures and programs for recruitment, testing, placement, classification, orientation, benefits and compensation, and labor and industrial relations.
- Fulfill all reporting requirements of all relevant government rules and regulations, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Financial Resources — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 5.66 |
| S — Social | 3.81 |
| I — Investigative | 2.18 |
| A — Artistic | 1.41 |
| R — Realistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 81.7 |
| ESTJ | 78.3 |
| ENFJ | 70.2 |
| ENTJ | 68.3 |
| ISFJ | 61.1 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Compensation, Benefit, and Job Analysis Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-benefit-and-job-analysis-specialist) — median $78,210
- [Human Resources Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-specialist) — median $75,940
- [Human Resources Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-manager) — median $149,280
- [Labor Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/labor-relations-specialist) — median $95,420
- [Financial Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-manager) — median $166,570
- [Equal Opportunity Representative and Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/equal-opportunity-representative-and-officer) — median $80,730
- [Accountant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/accountant) — median $83,680
- [Financial Examiner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner) — median $94,160
- [Treasurer and Controller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/treasurer-and-controller) — median $166,570
- [Budget Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/budget-analyst) — median $91,640

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/compensation-and-benefits-manager