PublicPayData

California · 2025 pay · 234 people

How much does an executive director make in California?

$185,869typical pay for a executive director in 2025

$126,365 – $240,378what most people earned

Includes everyone paid during 2025, including part-year workers. Typical pay fell 0.5% from 2024.

✓ Official data from 5 agencies · Matches each agency's latest release · Show sources

Where executive directors work

Typical pay at each employer, 2025 (everyone paid).

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Related jobs and the next step up

Same line of work at a different rank, by typical pay (full-year employees where we can tell).

  1. Executive Director (this page)$185,869 (everyone)
  2. Deputy Executive Director$220,484 (everyone)

Highest-paid executive directors, 2025

    Common questions

    How much does an executive director make in California?

    The typical executive director was paid $185,869 in 2025; most earned between $126,365 and $240,378. This counts all 234 people paid, including part-year workers.

    How much of the pay is overtime?

    Overtime made up 0.0% of all pay for executive directors in 2025.

    Which job titles are included?

    Everyone whose payroll title is Executive Director, at any level (for example "Executive Director"). Part-time-schedule titles (such as "20 hours") are left out. Senior, supervising and trainee titles have their own pages.

    Job titles are written out in full from the payroll's abbreviations (for example "SR CRRECTNL POLC OFCR" → "Senior Correctional Police Officer"). "Typical pay" is the median; "most earned" is the middle half. How we calculate this