What a data entry clerk costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 127,080 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
- $41,340
- Hourly wage
- $19.88
- Loaded per hour
- $24.76
- Middle half earns
- $35,760 to $48,410
- Jobs in the US
- 127,080
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A data entry clerk in the US is paid a median $41,340 a year, $19.88 an hour, across 127,080 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $51,490. Of its 5 core tasks, 4 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in every one Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 5 core tasks O*NET lists for data entry keyers, 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.
- 01Locate and correct data entry errors, or report them to supervisors.Claude.ai: 59% did the task, 41% helped · API: 95% did the task
- 02Compile, sort, and verify the accuracy of data before it is entered.Claude.ai: 69% did the task, 31% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 03Compare data with source documents, or re-enter data in verification format to detect errors.Claude.ai: 59% did the task, 41% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 04Store completed documents in appropriate locations.Claude.ai: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 05Select materials needed to complete work assignments.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
4 of 5 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: 0.08% 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, $55,170; Arkansas the least, $33,860. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 2 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $35,130 | $43,750 | $31,200 to $40,620 | 1,060 |
| Alaska | $40,700 | $50,690 | $36,160 to $59,720 | 160 |
| Arizona | $43,200 | $53,810 | $36,680 to $49,640 | 3,420 |
| Arkansas | $33,860 | $42,170 | $33,860 to $40,770 | 1,000 |
| California | $47,010 | $58,550 | $41,850 to $54,510 | 14,520 |
| Colorado | $43,910 | $54,690 | $37,960 to $54,240 | 1,190 |
| Connecticut | $38,560 | $48,030 | $34,140 to $48,630 | 1,290 |
| Delaware | $37,810 | $47,090 | $34,030 to $42,840 | 410 |
| District of Columbia | $55,170 | $68,710 | $50,910 to $64,100 | 200 |
| Florida | $38,880 | $48,430 | $35,650 to $45,690 | 7,650 |
| Georgia | $41,270 | $51,400 | $36,240 to $48,150 | 3,410 |
| Hawaii | $47,630 | $59,320 | $40,220 to $49,420 | 210 |
| Idaho | $42,810 | $53,320 | $35,150 to $50,120 | 540 |
| Illinois | $42,840 | $53,360 | $37,610 to $48,200 | 5,910 |
| Indiana | $40,550 | $50,510 | $35,900 to $48,080 | 2,370 |
| Iowa | $43,640 | $54,350 | $39,390 to $52,740 | 1,180 |
| Kansas | $38,290 | $47,690 | $35,600 to $44,190 | 1,210 |
| Kentucky | $36,870 | $45,920 | $30,460 to $44,860 | 2,020 |
| Louisiana | $36,920 | $45,980 | $32,670 to $41,500 | 1,800 |
| Maine | $48,190 | $60,020 | $45,140 to $51,510 | 140 |
| Maryland | $38,970 | $48,540 | $35,090 to $43,950 | 1,850 |
| Massachusetts | $47,560 | $59,240 | $38,370 to $54,170 | 1,590 |
| Michigan | $38,080 | $47,430 | $37,320 to $45,990 | 3,290 |
| Minnesota | $44,280 | $55,150 | $36,950 to $54,070 | 1,360 |
| Mississippi | $34,540 | $43,020 | $29,950 to $40,590 | 530 |
| Missouri | Not published | · | · | 2,720 |
| Montana | $42,340 | $52,730 | $38,390 to $48,380 | 300 |
| Nebraska | $39,600 | $49,320 | $29,010 to $43,170 | 1,260 |
| Nevada | $39,260 | $48,900 | $35,280 to $47,360 | 800 |
| New Hampshire | $43,440 | $54,100 | $38,650 to $46,800 | 790 |
| New Jersey | $42,470 | $52,900 | $35,910 to $51,180 | 4,940 |
| New Mexico | $49,810 | $62,040 | $41,510 to $53,370 | 300 |
| New York | $44,860 | $55,870 | $37,890 to $51,460 | 9,470 |
| North Carolina | $39,610 | $49,330 | $35,200 to $46,610 | 3,330 |
| North Dakota | $48,300 | $60,160 | $36,680 to $53,140 | 110 |
| Ohio | $40,220 | $50,090 | $36,060 to $47,270 | 4,530 |
| Oklahoma | $38,590 | $48,060 | $33,480 to $44,780 | 1,290 |
| Oregon | Not published | · | · | 1,840 |
| Pennsylvania | $38,810 | $48,340 | $34,080 to $44,970 | 5,270 |
| Rhode Island | $44,980 | $56,020 | $39,000 to $54,030 | 270 |
| South Carolina | $38,070 | $47,420 | $32,550 to $44,340 | 1,490 |
| South Dakota | $34,320 | $42,750 | $34,320 to $39,270 | 30 |
| Tennessee | $40,490 | $50,430 | $34,990 to $47,700 | 2,360 |
| Texas | $38,880 | $48,430 | $32,250 to $46,800 | 17,850 |
| Utah | $47,180 | $58,760 | $37,700 to $60,670 | 2,140 |
| Vermont | $43,280 | $53,910 | $42,000 to $45,820 | 290 |
| Virginia | $38,900 | $48,450 | $33,350 to $46,620 | 2,890 |
| Washington | $47,480 | $59,140 | $41,070 to $57,890 | 1,360 |
| West Virginia | $35,900 | $44,710 | $32,130 to $39,950 | 660 |
| Wisconsin | $38,170 | $47,540 | $29,800 to $46,370 | 2,360 |
| Wyoming | $45,870 | $57,130 | $35,680 to $48,640 | 140 |
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 43-9021 (Data Entry Keyers). 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 43-9021.00, 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 $51,490 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