Want to make the big money in California?
Think about becoming a boss in charge of high-skilled workers in big cities.
My trusty spreadsheet looked at an annual report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics with a curious employment analysis – slicing jobs and pay by the type of work done across all industries. The latest stats, as of May 2023, give us a window into how much more supervisors earn compared with the typical worker.
You see, it can pay to be a manager in California. The statewide median annual wage for a boss was $135,840, the eighth-highest managerial pay among the states and Washington, D.C. Those salaries are 16% above the $116,800 paid to bosses nationwide.
The nation’s top-paid bosses were in bureaucratic-heavy economies: D.C. at $161,300, New Jersey at $160,410 and New York at $152,520. The lowest management wages were found in less-populated places: Arkansas at $80,570, Mississippi at $80,930 and Idaho at $82,260.
And boss pay in California’s economic arch-rival states was middle-of-the-pack: Texas was No. 24 at $105,170 and Florida was No. 26 at $104,170.
The bump
Why put up with all the managerial headaches?
Well, boss pay is a hefty bump from the common paycheck. Consider that management across California gets paid $81,810 more a year than the median wage of $54,030 for all workers statewide.
That 151% gap is the sixth-largest boss premium among the states. The typical U.S. supervisor gets a $68,740 bigger paycheck – or 143% more than the $48,060 all-worker median.
The largest boss premiums were found in New Jersey at 192%, Delaware at 184% and New York at 168%. The smallest were in Idaho at 86%, D.C. at 91% and Alaska at 94%.
And Texas was No. 24 at 129% while Florida was No. 22 at 131%.
Opportunity knocks
Want to become a boss in the Golden State? Good news: There’s plenty of opportunity.
California had 1.3 million bosses in May 2023, the most in the U.S. Then came Texas at 1.1 million, New York at 611,690 and Florida at 601,150.
Note that California managers were 7.3% of all jobs statewide, the 13th largest share among the states and higher than the 6.9% U.S. share.
The most boss-heavy places were D.C. at 14.5%, Massachusetts at 9.5% and Maryland at 9.1%. Texas was No. 6 at 8.3%. Meanwhile, bosses were hardest to find in South Dakota, 3.5% of all jobs, Wisconsin at 4.7% and Rhode Island at 4.8%. Florida was No. 30 at 6.3%.
On the ladder
These stats also slice management work into various chores. This gives us a view into how California’s managerial pay varies by one’s rung on the corporate ladder.
The 38,920 chief executives across California had a median wage of $231,080. That may seem low for a corporate leader, but remember that the giant CEO compensation packages you hear about are primarily inflated with hefty bonuses and enormous stock-option payouts.
One notch lower in the boss world – California’s 273,630 general and operations managers – are the folks who supervise multiple managers (think, senior vice presidents or divisional presidents). They have a median wage of $122,140.
The report also identified 892,910 front-line supervisors in California overseeing 34 different skills. The spreadsheet found these jobs were worth a $113,700 salary.
Hot spots
Managerial pay also varies depending on the specific chores of the workers they supervise. Basically, bossing higher-skill staffs equals higher pay.
Is it much of a surprise that the top-paid front-line supervisors oversee work on computer and information systems? These bosses had a $210,490 median wage across 98,430 positions statewide.
Other top-paid front-line supervisors …
Natural sciences: $198,580 wage for 14,080 positions.
Architectural and engineering: $197,420 wage for 35,630 positions.
Marketing: $174,480 wage for 59,830 positions.
Financial: $169,780 wage for 97,400 positions.
So, where is managerial pay the lowest?
Lodging: $74,660 wage for 6,220 positions.
Property, real estate and community associations: $69,560 wage for 50,100 positions.
Food service: $67,740 wage for 44,500 positions.
Other personal services: $66,040 wage for 2,120 positions.
Preschool and daycare: $60,620 wage for 8,140 positions.
Geographically speaking
Where a boss is employed – and what industries are concentrated in a locale – changes a manager’s paycheck.
This report, tracking 29 California regions, found the state’s best-paid managers were in heavily populated regions filled with high-skilled labor.
Top boss pay was found in the high-paying tech hub of San Jose, home to a $206,650 median wage for 119,300 supervisory positions.
Then came San Francisco ($171,350 wage for 237,070 positions), San Diego ($134,250 for 114,190 positions), Los Angeles/Orange County ($130,300 for 437,530 positions) and Santa Maria/Santa Barbara ($124,690 for 12,900 positions).
And the lowest boss pay was located in remote, lightly populated parts of the state with significant employment in low-paying tourism work.
The 3,620 bosses in the eastern Sierras had a $96,430 median wage, while 5,820 managers in the state’s northern mountains had a $99,610 typical paycheck.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com