MBA careers
How To Become A Human Resources Manager
Jobs nationally
220,660
$88,200 to $267,810 across them
Ranked MBAs in this field
16
Human Resources concentration
One of the few jobs here where the Handbook says a graduate degree is sometimes required outright rather than merely preferred. An MBA with a human resources concentration is one way to meet that; a specialist HR master's is another, and BLS does not rank them.
What Human Resources Managers Do
The Occupational Outlook Handbook describes the work this way: “Human resources managers plan, coordinate, and direct the administrative functions of an organization.” That is the occupation BLS surveys for the pay figures on this page, so the job description and the wage belong to the same definition. The Handbook page is the source, read on September 22, 2026.
How To Become A Human Resources Manager
BLS sums the route up in one sentence: “Candidates typically need a combination of education and several years of related work experience to become a human resources manager. Although most positions require a bachelor's degree, some require a master's degree.”
The Handbook's wording here is unlike the rest of this site: most positions require a bachelor's degree, some require a master's. That makes this the one job on the list where a graduate degree is sometimes the filter rather than the differentiator.
What this site can add to that is the price of the degree and what its graduates earned. Across the 16 ranked online MBAs reporting a human resources concentration, whole-program tuition has a median of $26,800, and their graduates' median earnings a year after finishing were $77,732. The BLS median for human resources managers is $149,280, $68,368 above the $80,912 median a year out of these programs, which is the distance experience covers rather than the degree.
What Human Resources Managers Earn
The May 2025 wage survey reports 220,660 jobs nationally, with these figures:
| Percentile | Annual pay | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $88,200 | Lowest tenth of the occupation |
| 25th | $111,110 | Lower quarter |
| Median | $149,280 | Midpoint, half earn more |
| 75th | $199,290 | Upper quarter |
| 90th | $267,810 | Highest tenth |
The 90th percentile, $256,880, is more than three times the 10th, and the split tends to follow the size of the organization rather than the length of the career. MBA salaries by occupation sets all thirteen side by side, with what graduates of the ranked programs earned.
Online MBA Programs For Human Resources Managers
A human resources concentration is the direct fit, and a specialist HR master's is the alternative BLS does not rank against it. Leadership is the second concentration, for people managing the function rather than running it. Full profiles, prices and sources for each of these are on the concentration page; the score describes the whole MBA, because neither federal earnings nor AACSB tuition is reported for a single concentration.
| Program | Tuition | Graduate earnings | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Nebraska, Nebraska | $33,600 | $113,196 | 22nd |
| University of North Alabama, Alabama | $16,830 | $83,366 | 31st |
| Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma | $11,730 | $76,648 | 35th |
| University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin | $26,000 | $87,090 | 55th |
| Oakland University, Michigan | $34,254 | $91,379 | 68th |
All 16 ranked online MBAs in Human Resources ยท Online MBA in Leadership
Common Questions About Becoming A Human Resources Manager
Do you need an MBA to become a human resources manager?
How much do human resources managers make?
Which online MBA concentration is best for human resources managers?
Is the job growing?
Other Careers An MBA Leads To
Sources For This Human Resources Manager Page
- Accreditation, online MBA offerings, concentrations and tuition: AACSB's list of accredited schools, retrieved September 21, 2026. Program details on that list are reported to AACSB by each school.
- Graduate earnings and debt: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field-of-study file (Most-Recent-Cohorts-Field-of-Study_06102026.zip), business master's in CIP 52.01 and 52.02.
- Institution identifiers: IPEDS, used to match each AACSB school to its federal records.
- Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.