Which pays more, Retail Merchandiser or Retail Associate?

The median advertised salary for each is in the table above, along with the 25th and 75th percentiles so you can see the spread rather than one number.

Which has more openings?

Both counts are live and computed at the same moment, so the comparison is like for like.

Postings are read from company career systems continuously; the age row shows how old the listings themselves are.

Side by side

Retail Merchandiser vs Retail Associate

Retail Merchandiser pays more: a median of $45,500 against $35,500. Demand is comparable on both sides. Listings for Retail Associate move faster — median age 32 days against 89.

Comparison

Side by side

Measure	Retail Merchandiser	Retail Associate	Gap
Open postings	29,009	32,702	-3,693
Posted this week	676	2,637
Median salary	$45,500	$35,500	+$10k
25th percentile	$36k	$28k
75th percentile	$56.5k	$44k
Salary disclosed	7.7%	8.9%
Remote share	6.2%	10.4%	-4.2pp
Median age of posting	89d	32d
Open over 60 days	38.7%	48.0%
Visa sponsorship	13.5%	4.8%

Pay

Pay distribution

Retail Merchandiser

$20k$79k

Retail Associate

$16k$61k

Freshness

How old the listings are

Retail Merchandiser

just posted89d median90d+

Retail Associate

just posted32d median90d+

Demand

What each side asks for

Retail Merchandiser — technologies

Terraform

72.0%

AWS

65.8%

HubSpot

59.6%

Python

53.4%

Azure

47.2%

Snowflake

41.0%

Figma

34.8%

Retail Associate — technologies

AWS

72.0%

Python

65.8%

Kubernetes

59.6%

Spark

53.4%

Node.js

47.2%

Tableau

41.0%

Kotlin

34.8%

Retail Merchandiser — employers

Northwind Systems

9.4%

Aperture Labs

8.7%

Solstice Biotech

8.0%

Quarry Analytics

7.2%

Cobalt Financial

6.5%

Fairmount Legal

5.8%

Rivergate Media

5.1%

Retail Associate — employers

Aperture Labs

9.4%

Northwind Systems

8.7%

Ironbark Manufacturing

8.0%

Halcyon Energy

7.2%

Meridian Software

6.5%

Brightline Retail

5.8%

Solstice Biotech

5.1%

More comparisons

Other Retail comparisons

Assistant Manager vs Retail Merchandiser Assistant Manager vs Retail Associate Assistant Manager vs Shift Supervisor Assistant Manager vs Store Manager Retail Merchandiser vs Shift Supervisor Retail Merchandiser vs Store Manager Retail Associate vs Shift Supervisor Retail Associate vs Store Manager Shift Supervisor vs Store Manager

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.