Salary and Job Requirement Differences for Jobs in Local and State Health Departments versus the Private Sector: Analysis of Large-Scale Job Postings Data

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Heather Krasna

This entry is part 8 of 16 in the series July 2025

A research article that shows that government workers tend to earn less money than the same workers might make in corporations might seem like an article proving the sky is blue. But our new paper in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice found more complexity than that.

Prior studies of salary disparities have relied on surveys of workers or federal data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another way to identify real-time salary data is to leverage data from job postings. This method has been used in a handful of other studies. In our study, we leveraged Lightcast, a large-scale database which “scrapes” the internet for job postings from 160,000 online sources, then codes them by industry, job function, and more using machine learning tools. We conducted searches for job postings for 44 different occupations that are commonly found in state and local health departments. We used interval regression to identify salary differences between job postings in government and in the private sector.

Surprisingly, not every occupation paid less in government. Six occupations paid significantly more, and 27 paid less. For 37 occupations, government health departments were less likely to require a master’s degree.

Read Our Article in JPHMP

Not surprisingly, the very same jobs which health departments have trouble hiring for tend to be those that pay less. Occupations in computer sciences like computer and information systems managers paid up to 43.1% less in median salary—a whopping $64,000 difference in average salary. Software developers earned 50% less in government. Several scientific occupations like statisticians paid 37.5% less. Registered nurses earned 44% less, or $46,208 less in average salary. In contrast, certain roles, especially those in counseling, social work, or health education, with health education specialists earning 25% more and social and human service assistants earning 31.6% more.

It is likely that jobs where there are many jobs in the private sector tend to pay comparatively less in government, while jobs where the alternative careers are found primarily in nonprofit organizations pay more in government.

By using salary benchmarking from job postings, health departments may be able to advocate for higher wages for staff, especially in occupations that pay comparably less in government. Health departments can also consider marketing their benefits and their mission-driven career options to attract candidates, even if they cannot always compete on salary.

About the Author

Heather Krasna: Heather Krasna, PhD, EdM, MS, is Associate Dean of Career and Professional Development and Assistant Professor of Health Policy (adjunct) at Columbia University School of Public Health and co-author of the book 101+ Careers in Public Health (3rd Ed.). She is a public health workforce researcher, consultant, advocate, and career coach.