What a content writer costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 47,940 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
- $76,910
- Hourly wage
- $36.98
- Loaded per hour
- $46.06
- Middle half earns
- $58,230 to $101,950
- Jobs in the US
- 47,940
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A content writer in the US is paid a median $76,910 a year, $36.98 an hour, across 47,940 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $95,790. Of its 10 core tasks, all 10 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 1 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for writers and authors, 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.
- 01Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers, directors, or producers.Claude.ai: 16% did the task, 84% helped · API: 67% did the task
- 02Write fiction or nonfiction prose, such as short stories, novels, biographies, articles, descriptive or critical analyses, and essays.Claude.ai: 37% did the task, 63% helped · API: 94% did the task
- 03Present drafts and ideas to clients.Claude.ai: 34% did the task, 66% helped
- 04Edit or rewrite existing written material as necessary, and submit written material for approval by supervisor, editor, or publisher.Claude.ai: 28% did the task, 72% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 05Conduct research to obtain factual information and authentic detail, using sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, and interviews.Claude.ai: 23% did the task, 77% helped
- 06Vary language and tone of messages based on product and medium.Claude.ai: 32% did the task, 68% helped · API: 96% did the task
- 07Write articles, bulletins, sales letters, speeches, and other related informative, marketing and promotional material.Claude.ai: 44% did the task, 56% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 08Write advertising material for use by publication, broadcast, or internet media to promote the sale of goods and services.Claude.ai: 41% did the task, 59% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 09Write to customers in their terms and on their level so that the script, story, or advertisement message is more readily received.Claude.ai: 32% did the task, 68% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 10Prepare works in appropriate format for publication, and send them to publishers or producers.Claude.ai: 62% did the task, 38% helped
10 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026. 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: 2.22% 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, $129,300; Arkansas the least, $47,970. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 8 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $66,950 | $83,390 | $51,840 to $93,550 | 180 |
| Alaska | Not published | · | · | · |
| Arizona | $55,990 | $69,740 | $47,340 to $74,570 | 600 |
| Arkansas | $47,970 | $59,750 | $39,150 to $62,790 | 270 |
| California | $86,480 | $107,710 | $75,530 to $127,870 | 8,390 |
| Colorado | $76,830 | $95,690 | $51,710 to $95,420 | 1,300 |
| Connecticut | $98,460 | $122,630 | $73,610 to $129,260 | 480 |
| Delaware | Not published | · | · | · |
| District of Columbia | $129,300 | $161,040 | $100,320 to $158,020 | 1,050 |
| Florida | $68,080 | $84,790 | $47,410 to $93,100 | 3,010 |
| Georgia | $74,710 | $93,050 | $58,700 to $99,260 | 820 |
| Hawaii | Not published | · | · | 60 |
| Idaho | $56,360 | $70,200 | $48,770 to $69,120 | 90 |
| Illinois | $68,220 | $84,970 | $43,440 to $97,280 | 2,640 |
| Indiana | $75,820 | $94,430 | $59,080 to $90,590 | 450 |
| Iowa | $61,010 | $75,990 | $50,280 to $69,220 | 290 |
| Kansas | $65,840 | $82,000 | $43,740 to $72,700 | 240 |
| Kentucky | $48,780 | $60,760 | $40,760 to $64,550 | 350 |
| Louisiana | $89,520 | $111,500 | $55,860 to $105,970 | 480 |
| Maine | Not published | · | · | 200 |
| Maryland | $104,330 | $129,940 | $77,020 to $140,670 | 540 |
| Massachusetts | $85,260 | $106,190 | $67,770 to $108,030 | 1,350 |
| Michigan | Not published | · | · | · |
| Minnesota | $72,810 | $90,680 | $61,970 to $86,390 | 720 |
| Mississippi | $54,180 | $67,480 | $41,600 to $63,770 | 130 |
| Missouri | $58,140 | $72,410 | $48,130 to $77,570 | 600 |
| Montana | Not published | · | · | 90 |
| Nebraska | $65,470 | $81,540 | $55,290 to $77,260 | 240 |
| Nevada | $63,910 | $79,600 | $48,130 to $74,940 | 190 |
| New Hampshire | $71,830 | $89,460 | $50,750 to $98,550 | 180 |
| New Jersey | $81,590 | $101,620 | $60,610 to $103,120 | 1,180 |
| New Mexico | Not published | · | · | 90 |
| New York | Not published | · | · | 7,480 |
| North Carolina | $63,660 | $79,290 | $47,940 to $83,360 | 1,810 |
| North Dakota | $50,860 | $63,350 | $47,480 to $65,590 | 80 |
| Ohio | $65,930 | $82,120 | $55,680 to $81,060 | 830 |
| Oklahoma | $58,770 | $73,200 | $43,640 to $76,950 | 220 |
| Oregon | $80,540 | $100,310 | $52,620 to $104,010 | 950 |
| Pennsylvania | $77,410 | $96,410 | $54,030 to $102,480 | 1,080 |
| Rhode Island | $70,190 | $87,420 | $56,180 to $84,170 | 110 |
| South Carolina | $51,920 | $64,670 | $41,610 to $76,330 | 520 |
| South Dakota | $56,700 | $70,620 | $54,080 to $59,710 | 60 |
| Tennessee | $58,870 | $73,320 | $47,120 to $78,900 | 1,260 |
| Texas | $69,990 | $87,170 | $53,950 to $96,260 | 2,320 |
| Utah | $64,530 | $80,370 | $53,800 to $86,240 | 410 |
| Vermont | $94,430 | $117,610 | $79,920 to $107,590 | 110 |
| Virginia | $85,000 | $105,870 | $64,730 to $104,000 | 1,530 |
| Washington | $85,700 | $106,740 | $65,330 to $109,000 | 770 |
| West Virginia | $64,410 | $80,220 | $47,530 to $72,340 | 110 |
| Wisconsin | $64,370 | $80,170 | $51,710 to $77,220 | 710 |
| Wyoming | $49,650 | $61,840 | $41,560 to $57,600 | · |
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 27-3043 (Writers and Authors). 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 27-3043.00, 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 $95,790 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