The PayScale Index (US): Trends in Compensation

2012: Earning for workers in human resources continued to rise beyond their 2008 peak levels in Q1 2012, growing 0.7 percent in just one quarter. Wages in this job category grew faster than the national average, up 1.8 percent year-over-year, compared to only 1.4 percent nationally.

2007-2011: Human resources professionals’ earnings basically tracked the national average wage trends from 2007 through 2011. After a steady rise in 2007 and 2008, wages dropped in early 2009 and then were mostly flat through the rest of 2009 and 2010, rising slightly at the end of 2011.

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Human resources (SOC Codes 11-3110.00 Compensation and Benefits Managers; 11-3120.00 Human Resources Managers; 11-3130.00 Training and Development Managers; 13-1070.00 Human Resources Workers; 13-1140 Compensation, Benefits, and Job Analysis Specialists; 13-1150 Training and Development Specialists) jobs are all about the hiring, training, and compensating of a company's employees. Generally found in larger organizations of 100 employees or more (small business owners often wear all the HR hats), this job category is present in virtually every industry.

The SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) system is used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The PayScale Index tracks quarterly changes in total cash compensation for full-time, private industry employees in the United States. In addition to a national index, it includes separate indices for specific industries, metropolitan areas, job categories, and company sizes. The PayScale Index uses 2006 average total cash compensation as a baseline.

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