Human resources salaries – like any salary – need to stay competitive in order to keep the employees you value and recruit new staff. But what is the average human resources salary? More than likely, the pay for a staff member handling just payroll will be less than a human resources manager salary; but, it’s also important to determine average HR salaries for similar positions at other companies in your area.

Many factors come into play when determining the average salary of a human resources professional. Use the following tips to help you come up with basic HR salary guidelines:

1. Use online HR salary tools to come up with fair human resources pay scales based on several variables.

2. Search job boards for examples of current human resources salaries based on job description, location and experience level.

3. Purchase human resources salary software to help you determine competitive compensation and benefits for your HR staff.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Determine a fair human resources salary based on job description

If you don't have job descriptions for your HR positions, create them. Things to include are job duties, skills set and expectations. Then, use online salary tools to help you figure out the average HR salary for a person that matches the job description. Be sure to keep the number of years of experience and job location in mind.

I recommend: At Salary.com, enter job keywords, your zip code and the size of your company in its HR Salary Wizard to figure out average HR salaries. SalaryExpert has a free HR salary calculator plus links to U.S. and Canada salary reports and salary survey software.

Compare human resources salaries on national job boards

You can research all day long and find plenty of hypotheticals, but sometimes real-life examples provide the best information. Check out your local newspaper's classified section or search online job boards to find average HR salary information from real job postings. Keep a log for a few weeks to see if a pattern emerges.

I recommend: Find HR pay information on industry-specific websites, such as the Job Search section of the Society for Human Resource Management. Industrywide job boards, such as Vault, are another good place to search for average HR salaries.

Buy human resources salary software

As a business owner, you may not have the time to do extensive research on HR salaries, yet you want to come up with fair pay for your staff. Online salary research services and compensation software programs can get you the information you need and are usually quite simple to use.

I recommend: The Clayton Wallis Company offers a variety of HR salary tools, including the online salary research service CompGeo Online and the compensation software package CompExec. Economic Research Institute’s Salary Assessor is a software program designed to provide competitive salary data on human resources professionals and more than 8,500 other positions.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you need to hire a new human resources professional, the same job boards you used to research human resources salary are a great place to start your search.