What a billing clerk costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 404,060 jobs, what an employer pays on top of it, the pay in every state, and which of the job's core tasks already show up in AI use.
Medians for the whole US. Your own cost depends on where you hire, the benefits you offer and the hours worked.
- Median wage
- $48,500
- Hourly wage
- $23.32
- Loaded per hour
- $29.05
- Middle half earns
- $42,840 to $58,290
- Jobs in the US
- 404,060
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A billing clerk in the US is paid a median $48,500 a year, $23.32 an hour, across 404,060 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $60,410. Of its 7 core tasks, 4 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 2 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 7 core tasks O*NET lists for billing and posting clerks, most important first, and how each showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026. The bar splits those conversations between Claude doing the task and Claude helping a person do it.
- 01Verify accuracy of billing data and revise any errors.Claude.ai: 62% did the task, 38% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 02Prepare itemized statements, bills, or invoices and record amounts due for items purchased or services rendered.Claude.ai: 47% did the task, 53% helped · API: 94% did the task
- 03Keep records of invoices and support documents.Claude.ai: 77% did the task, 23% helped · API: 100% did the task
- 04Operate typing, adding, calculating, or billing machines.
- 05Create billing documents, shipping labels, credit memorandums, or credit forms.Claude.ai: 44% did the task, 56% helped · API: 84% did the task
- 06Perform general administrative tasks, such as answering telephones, scheduling appointments, and ordering supplies or equipment.
- 07Contact customers to obtain or relay account information.API: 99% did the task, 1% helped
4 of 7 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 1 more only in its sample of API traffic, where businesses run Claude inside their own software. A task without a row had too few conversations for Anthropic to publish, which is not the same as none. Shares are of all sampled Claude.ai conversations, so small figures are normal: 0.04% of every conversation that month was about this occupation.
Pay by state
The median annual wage in each state and DC, and the same wage fully loaded. District of Columbia pays the most, $64,330; Arkansas the least, $38,780.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $39,520 | $49,220 | $36,410 to $47,250 | 3,780 |
| Alaska | $52,170 | $64,980 | $46,210 to $58,100 | 370 |
| Arizona | $47,730 | $59,450 | $41,550 to $54,680 | 8,490 |
| Arkansas | $38,780 | $48,300 | $36,170 to $45,720 | 4,390 |
| California | $56,260 | $70,070 | $48,300 to $64,710 | 41,290 |
| Colorado | $52,670 | $65,600 | $47,120 to $62,070 | 8,170 |
| Connecticut | $52,000 | $64,770 | $47,400 to $63,170 | 4,170 |
| Delaware | $52,110 | $64,900 | $45,160 to $62,860 | 1,270 |
| District of Columbia | $64,330 | $80,120 | $57,930 to $85,990 | 530 |
| Florida | $46,540 | $57,970 | $40,350 to $51,670 | 28,560 |
| Georgia | $47,390 | $59,020 | $39,800 to $56,070 | 11,450 |
| Hawaii | $51,240 | $63,820 | $45,360 to $58,680 | 1,340 |
| Idaho | $46,440 | $57,840 | $38,560 to $52,180 | 2,850 |
| Illinois | $49,730 | $61,940 | $45,030 to $61,880 | 21,010 |
| Indiana | $46,400 | $57,790 | $40,320 to $51,610 | 8,060 |
| Iowa | $47,110 | $58,680 | $43,210 to $51,290 | 3,660 |
| Kansas | $46,420 | $57,820 | $40,070 to $53,790 | 3,890 |
| Kentucky | $45,590 | $56,780 | $38,890 to $51,260 | 5,200 |
| Louisiana | $43,170 | $53,770 | $36,980 to $49,140 | 5,970 |
| Maine | $47,840 | $59,580 | $45,030 to $56,230 | 1,850 |
| Maryland | $52,210 | $65,030 | $47,240 to $60,490 | 5,960 |
| Massachusetts | $56,110 | $69,890 | $49,370 to $61,740 | 7,430 |
| Michigan | $46,890 | $58,400 | $41,310 to $51,450 | 12,550 |
| Minnesota | $55,810 | $69,510 | $49,070 to $62,240 | 6,300 |
| Mississippi | $41,190 | $51,300 | $36,370 to $46,990 | 3,040 |
| Missouri | $46,760 | $58,240 | $39,920 to $53,430 | 8,550 |
| Montana | $46,730 | $58,200 | $42,860 to $50,690 | 1,890 |
| Nebraska | $47,410 | $59,050 | $40,540 to $53,420 | 3,310 |
| Nevada | $47,430 | $59,070 | $43,140 to $55,260 | 3,720 |
| New Hampshire | $50,710 | $63,160 | $47,080 to $57,840 | 1,480 |
| New Jersey | $51,750 | $64,450 | $47,120 to $59,530 | 14,910 |
| New Mexico | $46,120 | $57,440 | $39,090 to $51,930 | 2,050 |
| New York | $53,320 | $66,410 | $46,390 to $62,540 | 32,770 |
| North Carolina | $47,160 | $58,740 | $40,150 to $54,480 | 7,000 |
| North Dakota | $48,550 | $60,470 | $42,090 to $59,440 | 660 |
| Ohio | $46,390 | $57,780 | $40,410 to $50,560 | 19,480 |
| Oklahoma | $45,120 | $56,200 | $37,770 to $51,270 | 4,460 |
| Oregon | $51,860 | $64,590 | $46,400 to $59,490 | 5,030 |
| Pennsylvania | $46,890 | $58,400 | $40,970 to $56,290 | 15,800 |
| Rhode Island | $52,910 | $65,900 | $47,270 to $61,390 | 980 |
| South Carolina | $45,250 | $56,360 | $38,560 to $49,650 | 5,550 |
| South Dakota | $46,180 | $57,520 | $38,770 to $50,710 | 770 |
| Tennessee | $46,330 | $57,700 | $40,110 to $50,520 | 7,990 |
| Texas | $45,910 | $57,180 | $38,500 to $54,050 | 31,150 |
| Utah | $46,470 | $57,880 | $39,390 to $53,980 | 4,000 |
| Vermont | $50,730 | $63,180 | $46,910 to $59,330 | 890 |
| Virginia | $47,580 | $59,260 | $42,330 to $56,120 | 7,500 |
| Washington | $56,090 | $69,860 | $47,590 to $62,000 | 11,960 |
| West Virginia | $39,300 | $48,950 | $35,500 to $46,010 | 2,180 |
| Wisconsin | $48,230 | $60,070 | $44,930 to $54,620 | 7,790 |
| Wyoming | $44,880 | $55,900 | $40,920 to $49,880 | 580 |
The same benefits ratio applies in every state, because BLS does not publish benefit costs by business size for each state. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile wage.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure is copied from a public file. The only arithmetic is the loaded cost: the wage times 1.2455.
- Wages
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 43-3021 (Billing and Posting Clerks). Annual figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, as BLS computes them, so they already include pay for paid leave.
- Fully loaded
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private businesses with 1 to 49 workers: $37.64 an hour in total compensation over $27.88 in wages plus $2.34 in paid leave gives 1.2455. Paid leave sits in the denominator because the annual wage already pays it.
- Tasks
- O*NET 31.0 core tasks for 43-3021.00, the ten most important by their importance rating. A few occupations list fewer core tasks.
- AI use
- Anthropic Economic Index, release of June 2026, conversations from May 2026. "Did the task" is Anthropic's automation share, where the user directs Claude to do the work; "helped" is augmentation, where the user works with Claude to learn, check or iterate.
- Not measured
- What a particular business pays, and whether an AI system can do a task well. The AI figures count conversations about a task, not jobs replaced.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI use data from the Anthropic Economic Index by Anthropic, under CC BY. Wage and benefit data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What would an AI system cost for this work?
Put $60,410 beside the running cost of a system doing the tasks above, with the build counted in year one.
BLS wages May 2025 · O*NET 31.0 · Anthropic Economic Index