Payroll Specialist salary
3 market ranges · employer-stated pay · updated Oct 19, 2026
The best-evidenced figure here is for payroll specialist roles at mid level across the United States: 47 postings where the employer stated pay put the middle half between $60,500 and $81,470, with a median of $69,303.
Pay rises with seniority across the United States: the medians run mid-level $69,303 and senior $90,054. Moving from mid-level to senior is worth roughly 30% more.
Every range here is counted from real postings, never modelled. Every range in the table rests on at least 10 postings.
Payroll Specialist pay by specialization
Payroll 131HR Business Partner & Generalist 2People Operations & HRIS 1
Live payroll specialist roles by HR function. A title spans functions; each link opens that function's own benchmark.
Every measured range
3 by market and level| Market | Level | Market range | Median | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States · country-wide | Mid | $60,500 – $81,470 | $69,303 | 47 |
| Canada · country-wide | Mid | CA$67,500 – CA$80,000 | CA$72,900 | 13 |
| United States · country-wide | Senior | $74,713 – $96,613 | $90,054 | 14 |
Entry is junior titles. Mid is mid-level and manager titles. Senior is senior titles. Lead is director, VP and above.
Ranges span the 25th to 75th percentile of employer-stated base pay for the market and level. Median is the 50th percentile. Sample is the number of postings measured.
Open payroll specialist roles · 59 with stated pay
this job's paywhere most pay sits here, $55,000–$108,900scale $30,000–$160,000
60 of 134 open roles. All payroll specialist jobs