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Social and Human Service Assistants

SOC 21-1093 · 2024-2034

Assist other social and human service providers in providing client services in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, or social work, including support for families. May assist clients in identifying and obtaining available benefits and social and community services. May assist social workers with developing, organizing, and conducting programs to prevent and resolve problems relevant to substance abuse, human relationships, rehabilitation, or dependent care.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$52,520per year
Projected openings
73,580
Projected change
+16.1%
Usually needs
High school diploma or equivalent

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

  1. Social Perceptiveness
  2. Active Listening
  3. Speaking
  4. Service Orientation
  5. Reading Comprehension
  6. Coordination

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$61,8671,170
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$60,8402,610
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$58,8324,260
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$58,7844,470
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$58,498420
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$58,241730
Napa MSA (Napa County)$56,978300
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$55,642870
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$54,8411,100
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$54,8204,530
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$54,3487,850
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$52,992520
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$52,725310
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$52,3464,520
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)$52,170670
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$51,390510
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$51,153520
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$51,07118,060
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$50,8041,270
Merced MSA (Merced County)$50,167340
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)$50,1671,070
Chico MSA (Butte County)$49,500380
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$48,914460
El Centro MSA (Imperial County)$48,668390
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$48,6375,910
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$48,1542,060
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$47,045360
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$47,0451,030
Redding MSA (Shasta County)$46,716290
Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County)$45,021280

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$40,133
A quarter earn under
$47,401
Half earn under
$52,520
Three quarters earn under
$63,170
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$76,328

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

OccupationTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers$81,21122,620+20.1%
Child, Family, and School Social Workers$67,02560,640+14.1%
Healthcare Social Workers$92,17019,610+19.4%
Marriage and Family Therapists$69,18446,570+30.7%
Rehabilitation Counselors$45,72517,450+14.8%
Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors$88,92140,270+5.5%

Programs that train for this job — 18