What a bookkeeper costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 1,373,680 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
- $50,670
- Hourly wage
- $24.36
- Loaded per hour
- $30.34
- Middle half earns
- $43,520 to $61,470
- Jobs in the US
- 1,373,680
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A bookkeeper in the US is paid a median $50,670 a year, $24.36 an hour, across 1,373,680 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $63,110. Of its 10 core tasks, 4 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 3 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing 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.
- 01Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.
- 02Check figures, postings, and documents for correct entry, mathematical accuracy, and proper codes.Claude.ai: 53% did the task, 47% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 03Comply with federal, state, and company policies, procedures, and regulations.
- 04Operate 10-key calculators, typewriters, and copy machines to perform calculations and produce documents.
- 05Receive, record, and bank cash, checks, and vouchers.
- 06Perform financial calculations, such as amounts due, interest charges, balances, discounts, equity, and principal.Claude.ai: 49% did the task, 51% helped · API: 90% did the task
- 07Code documents according to company procedures.Claude.ai: 79% did the task, 21% helped · API: 100% did the task
- 08Reconcile or note and report discrepancies found in records.API: 94% did the task, 6% helped
- 09Perform general office duties, such as filing, answering telephones, and handling routine correspondence.
- 10Access computerized financial information to answer general questions as well as those related to specific accounts.Claude.ai: 75% did the task, 25% helped · API: 95% did the task
4 of 10 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: 0.32% 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, $65,180; Mississippi the least, $42,840.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $44,640 | $55,600 | $36,390 to $50,680 | 19,890 |
| Alaska | $56,430 | $70,280 | $47,270 to $64,360 | 4,580 |
| Arizona | $50,590 | $63,010 | $44,980 to $59,550 | 22,690 |
| Arkansas | $42,840 | $53,360 | $36,020 to $51,100 | 12,510 |
| California | $59,230 | $73,770 | $48,600 to $70,600 | 151,870 |
| Colorado | $54,000 | $67,260 | $46,400 to $64,170 | 26,140 |
| Connecticut | $59,970 | $74,690 | $49,840 to $70,710 | 14,930 |
| Delaware | $51,780 | $64,490 | $44,980 to $61,620 | 4,600 |
| District of Columbia | $65,180 | $81,180 | $55,280 to $77,700 | 1,790 |
| Florida | $49,330 | $61,440 | $42,890 to $59,960 | 88,670 |
| Georgia | $49,350 | $61,470 | $40,410 to $60,010 | 38,700 |
| Hawaii | $48,730 | $60,690 | $42,340 to $58,790 | 5,220 |
| Idaho | $48,310 | $60,170 | $40,770 to $58,660 | 9,540 |
| Illinois | $49,560 | $61,730 | $42,680 to $60,130 | 51,470 |
| Indiana | $47,820 | $59,560 | $39,970 to $57,770 | 29,910 |
| Iowa | $48,180 | $60,010 | $41,140 to $57,540 | 14,020 |
| Kansas | $47,290 | $58,900 | $39,310 to $56,480 | 15,380 |
| Kentucky | $46,550 | $57,980 | $37,450 to $56,610 | 23,480 |
| Louisiana | $44,890 | $55,910 | $35,990 to $54,170 | 18,980 |
| Maine | $50,510 | $62,910 | $45,100 to $60,210 | 7,390 |
| Maryland | $53,540 | $66,680 | $45,990 to $63,040 | 18,170 |
| Massachusetts | $59,830 | $74,520 | $49,160 to $69,110 | 29,110 |
| Michigan | $48,980 | $61,000 | $42,740 to $58,530 | 37,550 |
| Minnesota | $54,600 | $68,000 | $46,970 to $62,640 | 26,850 |
| Mississippi | $42,840 | $53,360 | $34,890 to $51,080 | 12,160 |
| Missouri | $47,990 | $59,770 | $40,220 to $58,140 | 21,400 |
| Montana | $47,270 | $58,870 | $40,510 to $55,790 | 6,980 |
| Nebraska | $47,110 | $58,680 | $39,000 to $54,900 | 10,050 |
| Nevada | $50,380 | $62,750 | $43,800 to $60,290 | 15,180 |
| New Hampshire | $52,450 | $65,330 | $44,980 to $61,140 | 7,180 |
| New Jersey | $58,300 | $72,610 | $48,400 to $67,270 | 37,550 |
| New Mexico | $48,080 | $59,880 | $40,170 to $58,280 | 7,780 |
| New York | $58,160 | $72,440 | $47,400 to $69,330 | 84,280 |
| North Carolina | $47,930 | $59,700 | $39,870 to $58,060 | 48,760 |
| North Dakota | $49,710 | $61,910 | $44,750 to $58,990 | 4,290 |
| Ohio | $48,810 | $60,790 | $42,360 to $58,720 | 45,140 |
| Oklahoma | $46,180 | $57,520 | $38,050 to $56,360 | 16,490 |
| Oregon | $54,060 | $67,330 | $45,730 to $62,930 | 21,710 |
| Pennsylvania | $48,440 | $60,330 | $41,840 to $58,910 | 48,920 |
| Rhode Island | $53,280 | $66,360 | $46,800 to $63,160 | 4,570 |
| South Carolina | $47,940 | $59,710 | $39,810 to $58,240 | 19,980 |
| South Dakota | $46,340 | $57,720 | $39,370 to $52,000 | 10,200 |
| Tennessee | $48,180 | $60,010 | $40,330 to $58,460 | 37,680 |
| Texas | $48,910 | $60,920 | $40,710 to $60,320 | 122,400 |
| Utah | $49,440 | $61,580 | $41,600 to $59,670 | 12,650 |
| Vermont | $54,720 | $68,150 | $47,850 to $63,420 | 2,950 |
| Virginia | $51,620 | $64,290 | $44,420 to $62,230 | 31,990 |
| Washington | $58,620 | $73,010 | $49,830 to $66,400 | 32,930 |
| West Virginia | $42,890 | $53,420 | $36,450 to $49,520 | 7,620 |
| Wisconsin | $50,340 | $62,700 | $44,580 to $59,380 | 25,960 |
| Wyoming | $47,910 | $59,670 | $39,880 to $57,510 | 3,480 |
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 43-3031 (Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing 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 43-3031.00, 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 $63,110 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