What a customer service representative costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 2,595,750 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
- $44,770
- Hourly wage
- $21.53
- Loaded per hour
- $26.82
- Middle half earns
- $36,870 to $51,780
- Jobs in the US
- 2,595,750
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A customer service representative in the US is paid a median $44,770 a year, $21.53 an hour, across 2,595,750 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $55,760. Of its 7 core tasks, 2 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 7 core tasks O*NET lists for customer service representatives, 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.
- 01Confer with customers by telephone or in person to provide information about products or services, take or enter orders, cancel accounts, or obtain details of complaints.Claude.ai: 29% did the task, 71% helped · API: 92% did the task
- 02Keep records of customer interactions or transactions, recording details of inquiries, complaints, or comments, as well as actions taken.
- 03Check to ensure that appropriate changes were made to resolve customers' problems.API: 92% did the task, 8% helped
- 04Contact customers to respond to inquiries or to notify them of claim investigation results or any planned adjustments.Claude.ai: 92% did the task, 8% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 05Determine charges for services requested, collect deposits or payments, or arrange for billing.
- 06Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.
- 07Refer unresolved customer grievances to designated departments for further investigation.API: 98% did the task, 2% helped
2 of 7 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 2 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: 0.07% 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. Washington pays the most, $50,330; Mississippi the least, $36,380.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $38,400 | $47,830 | $34,370 to $46,500 | 33,290 |
| Alaska | $45,150 | $56,230 | $38,560 to $52,730 | 2,410 |
| Arizona | $45,690 | $56,910 | $37,880 to $51,610 | 87,020 |
| Arkansas | $37,840 | $47,130 | $33,830 to $46,630 | 20,680 |
| California | $49,560 | $61,730 | $44,200 to $61,510 | 176,850 |
| Colorado | $47,540 | $59,210 | $40,380 to $57,420 | 38,770 |
| Connecticut | $48,090 | $59,900 | $40,460 to $60,010 | 24,490 |
| Delaware | $48,190 | $60,020 | $39,310 to $59,910 | 7,470 |
| District of Columbia | $48,250 | $60,100 | $40,400 to $62,560 | 7,550 |
| Florida | $40,440 | $50,370 | $36,400 to $47,860 | 228,000 |
| Georgia | $39,630 | $49,360 | $34,460 to $48,120 | 97,850 |
| Hawaii | $45,650 | $56,860 | $38,120 to $51,620 | 8,010 |
| Idaho | $43,200 | $53,810 | $36,110 to $49,340 | 18,770 |
| Illinois | $46,130 | $57,450 | $37,680 to $58,050 | 100,970 |
| Indiana | $43,140 | $53,730 | $36,090 to $50,320 | 44,630 |
| Iowa | $46,090 | $57,410 | $37,880 to $54,880 | 30,100 |
| Kansas | $40,320 | $50,220 | $34,860 to $48,410 | 29,200 |
| Kentucky | $38,700 | $48,200 | $35,290 to $47,800 | 38,630 |
| Louisiana | $37,330 | $46,490 | $31,960 to $44,770 | 25,780 |
| Maine | $47,160 | $58,740 | $38,340 to $51,420 | 7,560 |
| Maryland | $42,830 | $53,340 | $36,430 to $50,490 | 37,740 |
| Massachusetts | $49,120 | $61,180 | $41,500 to $61,090 | 49,990 |
| Michigan | $43,950 | $54,740 | $36,150 to $50,060 | 71,310 |
| Minnesota | $48,800 | $60,780 | $41,330 to $59,810 | 53,340 |
| Mississippi | $36,380 | $45,310 | $31,520 to $44,510 | 20,860 |
| Missouri | $44,190 | $55,040 | $36,480 to $51,040 | 50,530 |
| Montana | $45,290 | $56,410 | $39,500 to $50,120 | 4,910 |
| Nebraska | $43,940 | $54,730 | $37,250 to $49,810 | 15,340 |
| Nevada | $40,560 | $50,520 | $35,740 to $47,390 | 32,110 |
| New Hampshire | $47,300 | $58,910 | $38,040 to $58,310 | 12,750 |
| New Jersey | $47,740 | $59,460 | $39,410 to $59,070 | 59,690 |
| New Mexico | $39,030 | $48,610 | $35,890 to $47,070 | 16,950 |
| New York | $48,000 | $59,780 | $40,360 to $60,280 | 141,090 |
| North Carolina | $40,240 | $50,120 | $34,960 to $48,590 | 89,510 |
| North Dakota | $44,670 | $55,640 | $38,580 to $54,060 | 5,750 |
| Ohio | $45,610 | $56,810 | $37,440 to $52,510 | 85,930 |
| Oklahoma | $38,650 | $48,140 | $34,400 to $46,920 | 34,460 |
| Oregon | $47,450 | $59,100 | $41,360 to $55,660 | 19,440 |
| Pennsylvania | $44,630 | $55,590 | $36,760 to $51,750 | 94,340 |
| Rhode Island | $47,550 | $59,220 | $41,600 to $57,530 | 7,890 |
| South Carolina | $38,860 | $48,400 | $34,940 to $47,090 | 51,000 |
| South Dakota | $40,650 | $50,630 | $36,470 to $48,290 | 6,120 |
| Tennessee | $42,830 | $53,340 | $36,130 to $48,670 | 59,730 |
| Texas | $40,420 | $50,340 | $35,420 to $48,300 | 337,170 |
| Utah | $43,140 | $53,730 | $37,120 to $49,370 | 44,490 |
| Vermont | $47,500 | $59,160 | $40,630 to $58,340 | 2,870 |
| Virginia | $42,730 | $53,220 | $35,940 to $49,940 | 59,850 |
| Washington | $50,330 | $62,690 | $44,780 to $61,330 | 39,760 |
| West Virginia | $38,430 | $47,860 | $34,440 to $48,500 | 9,860 |
| Wisconsin | $46,970 | $58,500 | $38,780 to $56,600 | 50,840 |
| Wyoming | $42,340 | $52,730 | $36,610 to $49,130 | 2,110 |
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 43-4051 (Customer Service Representatives). 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 43-4051.00, 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 $55,760 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