What an editor costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 91,690 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
- $77,920
- Hourly wage
- $37.46
- Loaded per hour
- $46.66
- Middle half earns
- $57,300 to $106,100
- Jobs in the US
- 91,690
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
An editor in the US is paid a median $77,920 a year, $37.46 an hour, across 91,690 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $97,050. Of its 10 core tasks, 5 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in each Claude mostly assisted a person.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for editors, 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 facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.Claude.ai: 34% did the task, 66% helped · API: 88% did the task
- 02Write text, such as headlines, stories, articles, editorials, or newsletters.
- 03Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.Claude.ai: 29% did the task, 71% helped · API: 90% did the task
- 04Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.Claude.ai: 35% did the task, 65% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 05Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.Claude.ai: 30% did the task, 70% helped · API: 93% did the task
- 06Allocate print space for story text, photos, and illustrations according to space parameters and copy significance, using knowledge of layout principles.Claude.ai: 48% did the task, 52% helped · API: 84% did the task
- 07Confer with management and editorial staff members regarding placement and emphasis of developing news stories.
- 08Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements.
- 09Supervise and coordinate work of reporters and other editors.
- 10Assign topics, events and stories to individual writers or reporters for coverage.
5 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: 2.58% 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. New York pays the most, $101,480; Texas the least, $45,950. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 1 gap here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $63,330 | $78,880 | $43,510 to $87,990 | 530 |
| Alaska | $63,630 | $79,250 | $59,220 to $76,640 | 60 |
| Arizona | $63,090 | $78,580 | $56,280 to $83,730 | 820 |
| Arkansas | $50,180 | $62,500 | $38,090 to $62,390 | 260 |
| California | $98,030 | $122,100 | $71,090 to $136,820 | 14,830 |
| Colorado | $77,870 | $96,990 | $58,510 to $98,170 | 1,830 |
| Connecticut | $85,950 | $107,050 | $61,160 to $123,380 | 1,050 |
| Delaware | $75,020 | $93,440 | $48,980 to $102,160 | 170 |
| District of Columbia | $83,920 | $104,520 | $77,400 to $130,360 | 3,310 |
| Florida | $73,950 | $92,100 | $47,880 to $95,740 | 3,790 |
| Georgia | $76,650 | $95,470 | $60,770 to $90,360 | 1,920 |
| Hawaii | $55,070 | $68,590 | $49,820 to $77,360 | 100 |
| Idaho | Not published | · | · | 230 |
| Illinois | $76,060 | $94,730 | $62,370 to $100,750 | 4,560 |
| Indiana | $56,440 | $70,300 | $39,930 to $77,900 | 830 |
| Iowa | $57,200 | $71,240 | $45,800 to $75,180 | 900 |
| Kansas | $61,920 | $77,120 | $50,770 to $77,640 | 500 |
| Kentucky | $59,430 | $74,020 | $45,540 to $84,160 | 490 |
| Louisiana | $58,860 | $73,310 | $44,640 to $76,030 | 330 |
| Maine | $50,180 | $62,500 | $46,280 to $73,390 | 300 |
| Maryland | $75,550 | $94,100 | $60,820 to $100,300 | 1,850 |
| Massachusetts | $83,170 | $103,590 | $61,490 to $103,620 | 3,100 |
| Michigan | $63,090 | $78,580 | $49,120 to $77,370 | 1,690 |
| Minnesota | $62,650 | $78,030 | $48,200 to $79,710 | 1,970 |
| Mississippi | $54,380 | $67,730 | $36,980 to $74,620 | 290 |
| Missouri | $61,620 | $76,750 | $45,330 to $82,420 | 880 |
| Montana | $61,750 | $76,910 | $44,230 to $82,370 | 200 |
| Nebraska | $46,320 | $57,690 | $39,120 to $58,730 | 360 |
| Nevada | $72,510 | $90,310 | $53,840 to $89,240 | · |
| New Hampshire | $66,510 | $82,840 | $54,980 to $88,590 | 250 |
| New Jersey | $81,680 | $101,730 | $64,990 to $107,830 | 2,120 |
| New Mexico | $64,250 | $80,020 | $44,730 to $81,240 | 230 |
| New York | $101,480 | $126,390 | $76,790 to $140,320 | 16,800 |
| North Carolina | $73,740 | $91,840 | $55,950 to $84,050 | 1,870 |
| North Dakota | $60,520 | $75,380 | $43,750 to $68,170 | 200 |
| Ohio | $72,160 | $89,880 | $51,270 to $98,440 | 1,800 |
| Oklahoma | $50,780 | $63,250 | $39,460 to $65,160 | 500 |
| Oregon | $71,540 | $89,100 | $57,740 to $90,740 | 1,110 |
| Pennsylvania | $63,460 | $79,040 | $46,530 to $87,770 | 3,240 |
| Rhode Island | $77,960 | $97,100 | $59,000 to $82,020 | 340 |
| South Carolina | $62,000 | $77,220 | $48,250 to $76,300 | 500 |
| South Dakota | $56,730 | $70,660 | $55,940 to $63,320 | 140 |
| Tennessee | $59,550 | $74,170 | $46,010 to $80,940 | 1,390 |
| Texas | $45,950 | $57,230 | $29,950 to $73,160 | 6,460 |
| Utah | $65,040 | $81,010 | $49,360 to $82,130 | 590 |
| Vermont | $66,860 | $83,270 | $60,170 to $97,030 | 240 |
| Virginia | $80,590 | $100,370 | $58,990 to $109,090 | 2,720 |
| Washington | $77,850 | $96,960 | $56,900 to $100,580 | 1,860 |
| West Virginia | $56,630 | $70,530 | $39,490 to $82,980 | 260 |
| Wisconsin | $64,270 | $80,050 | $47,490 to $82,950 | 1,510 |
| Wyoming | $46,710 | $58,180 | $40,230 to $65,570 | 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 27-3041 (Editors). 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 27-3041.00, 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 $97,050 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