Authority and Background
Survey Findings: Total Compensation
Geographic Comparisons
Data and Methodology
Glossary of Terms
2023 Total Compensation and Key Statistics Dashboards
Executive Summary
California’s state government competes for its workforce with local government agencies, as well as with the private sector and the federal government. This makes it critical for the state to understand how its compensation compares with other employers.
Making simple wage comparisons, however, provides an incomplete picture. It is analogous to comparing the value of one home to another, without considering the size or location of the land. This is the reason that statutes require the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to compare state employee salaries and benefits with public and private sector employers.
To meet this challenge, CalHR turned to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (Bureau), which produces two of the nation’s most comprehensive wage and benefit surveys: the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey and the National Compensation Survey (NCS).
By using the Bureau’s benchmark data and established methodology for calculating employee costs, the state is able to compare its compensation practices with other employer groups in California, and provide valuable insight to current and prospective employees, policy makers, and the public.
Summary of Report Findings
This survey covers three hundred and sixty-two (362) state classifications mapped to thirty (30) occupations from nine (9) bargaining units. These occupations represent approximately 70 percent of employees in bargaining units 2, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, and 19.
Consistent with previous reports, the state’s comprehensive benefit package significantly enhances the overall value of compensation for state employees. For example, when comparing wages only, the state was at or above the market average
[1] for twenty (20) of the thirty (30) occupations examined in this report. However, when comparing total compensation, the number increased to twenty-four (24) of the thirty (30) occupations.
Intent of Report
The intent of this report is to use the best available data to compare the state’s total compensation costs with other employers in California.
This report does not define the appropriate level of compensation for state employees. Instead, this report compares how state workers are compensated, as a group, with other workers in the same occupation by measuring the employer’s costs for providing wages and common employee benefits.
Accompanying this report, CalHR has published two
dashboards, which includes other information that can be used to evaluate the State of California’s ability to recruit and retain employees in these occupations, such as turnover, longevity, and vacancy data.
Authority and Background
According to Government Code section 19826, subdivisions (a) and (c), when the state establishes or adjusts salaries, “consideration shall be given to the prevailing rates for comparable service in other public employment and in private business,” and CalHR must submit its findings to the parties meeting and conferring and to the Legislature biennially. The law requires that the state’s report contain, “salaries of employees in comparable occupations in private industry and other governmental agencies.”
The Budget Act, Chapter 12, Statutes of 2023, Item 7501‐001‐0001, Provision 1, requires that in addition to salaries the report must include total compensation and geographic comparisons.
Survey Findings: Total Compensation
Since 1982, rank-and-file state employees in California have been divided into different bargaining units based upon the type of work they perform and are covered under collective bargaining rules outlined in the Ralph C. Dills Act. Each bargaining unit is represented by a union that negotiates employee wages, benefits, hours of work, and other terms and conditions of employment through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This report includes thirty (30) benchmark occupations from nine (9) of these bargaining units. In 2025, the state will be negotiating with seven (7) bargaining units, six (6) of which are included in this report (2, 9, 13, 16, 18, and 19).
In the following tables the state’s total compensation for each occupation is compared separately with large private sector employers (500+) and the public sector, including local and federal government. The local government, private sector, and federal government columns display the percentage lead or lag compared to the state’s total compensation for each occupation.
A positive percentage indicates the state’s compensation is above (or leads) that employer group. A negative percentage indicates the state’s total compensation is below (or lags) that employer group. The Market Average is a weighted average for all three employer groups based upon total compensation and employment estimates for each employer.
The State and Other Employers
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average.
Geographic Comparisons
When comparing compensation, it is important to recognize that wages can vary between geographic regions. The federal government has a policy of paying its white-collar employees more to work in four regions of California (Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego) than it does in the rest of the state.
The tables below the geographic map compare the state's total compensation for each occupation in the same regions, as well as “All Other Counties," using the 2014 Federal Locality Pay Area boundaries
[2].
Comparison in Sacramento Region
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average in the Sacramento Region[3].
Comparison in San Francisco Bay Area Region
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average in the San Francisco Bay Area Region
[4].
Comparison in Los Angeles Region
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average in the Los Angeles Region
[5].
Comparison in San Diego County
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average in San Diego County.
Comparison in All Other Counties
The table below displays the state’s total compensation lead or lag compared to each employer group and the Market Average in All Other Counties in California
[6].
- The Market Average represents a weighted average for three employer groups, including local government, large private employers (500+), and federal government, based upon total compensation and employment estimates for each employer group. Median wages were used to compare all occupations, except for Dentists, Physicians, and Psychiatrists in bargaining unit 16, where the mean was used.
↩
- The
2014 Locality Pay Area Definitions published by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
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- The Sacramento Region consists of the following counties: El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba.
↩
- The San Francisco Bay Area Region consists of the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma.
↩
- The Los Angeles Region consists of the following counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
↩
- The All Other Counties in California include: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, and Tuolumne. ↩
Published on January 31, 2025
