Assistants

• Human resources assistants, not including timekeeping and payroll clerks, earned average wages of $18.19 per hour, or $37,840 per year, in May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Median wages were $17.62 hourly, or $36,650 per year, the best-paid 10 percent earned $53,160 or more, and the lowest-paid tenth made $24,970 or less.
  
  

Generalists

• Earnings of human resources generalists ranged from $38,387 to $56,221, as of August 2010, according to Payscale, which surveyed 6,033 people working in this occupation. Popular industries included health care, manufacturing and distribution, information technology services, financial services and insurance. Information technology services was the best-paying among these, with salaries ranging from $40,664 to $58,001.
  
  

Managers

• Human resources managers not included under other occupational classifications made average wages of $50.73 per hour, or $105,510 per year, in May 2009, according to the BLS. Median wages were $46.42 hourly, or $96,550 annually. Salaries ranged from $58,490 or less for the lowest-paid tenth of human resource managers to $164,270 for the highest-paid 10 percent of workers in this occupation.