HR Manager salary
What a hr manager actually earns, from 539 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-09-06.
Switch the market above to see hr manager pay in the 3 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
Human-resources management posts a blended US median near 105,000 dollars, a number that has quietly climbed as the function moved from administration to strategy. The spread tracks scope: a generalist running policy sits near the floor, while heads of talent and total-rewards leaders at scaled companies clear it comfortably. The role is less automatable than its reputation, because the hard part is judgment about people under conflicting incentives, not the paperwork that software now handles. The pay lever is specialization, into compensation, talent, or organizational design, not tenure.
Open hr manager roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
- HR Business Partner at ElsevierUnited States · Remote$65k–$130kTodayApply
Senior Manager, People Ops & Total Rewards at NetBrainUnited States · Remote$150k–$170k1d agoApply- HR Business Partner at SNF FNS SNSFBern, Bern, Switzerland1d agoApply
- HR-Specialist 100% at PKZ Burger-Kehl & Co. AGUrdorf, Zürich, Switzerland1d agoApply
(Senior) People Operations Manager (f/m/d) at BunchBerlin1d agoApply
HR Generalist Payroll & Administration (m/w/d) 80-100% at Michael PageZürich, Zürich, Switzerland1d agoApply
By seniority
Posted-median pay by seniority signal in the title, from our corpus. Noisy at the edges where sample sizes are small.
By country
- United States$86,239$109,266$146,627
- United Kingdom$58,087$68,218$81,862
- Canada$59,394$71,019$85,433
Switzerland · official wage bands
median CHF 10'375/month
Swiss postings do not state pay, so these are not posted salaries: they are the federal wage survey (Lohnstrukturerhebung 2024) for the ISCO group 12 Führungskräfte im kaufmännischen Bereich: standardized gross monthly, full-time, 13th salary included pro rata. The band covers the whole occupation group, which is coarser than this occupation alone.
Annual ≈ CHF 124'500 at the median. Source: Bundesamt für Statistik, LSE 2024.
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- Massachusetts$176,510
- New York$171,440
- Washington$169,410
- California$169,140
- Virginia$161,690
- Colorado$154,500
Roles that pay more, that these skills already reach
Median pay from each destination’s own postings, with the readiness a hr manager profile already covers.
- 157 open financial controller roles$137,984 median · +$28,718 · 13% readiness
- 600 open business analyst roles$122,331 median · +$13,065 · 17% readiness
Every measured move out of this role, ranked by readiness: alternative careers for a hr manager.
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Related salaries
- Management Consultant salary$121,564 median
- Business Analyst salary$122,331 median
- Project Manager salary$126,568 median
Quick answers
How much do HR managers make?
The blended US median is about 105,000 dollars, rising with scope from generalist to head-of-function roles.
How does an HR manager earn more?
By specializing, into compensation, talent acquisition, or organizational design, rather than staying a generalist.
Is HR a safe career from automation?
The administrative half is automating; the judgment half, handling people under conflicting incentives, is not.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 11-3121. Live corpus 539 observations, 2026-09-06. Definitions in the glossary.