What an event planner costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 142,860 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
- $61,160
- Hourly wage
- $29.41
- Loaded per hour
- $36.63
- Middle half earns
- $46,970 to $78,790
- Jobs in the US
- 142,860
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
An event planner in the US is paid a median $61,160 a year, $29.41 an hour, across 142,860 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $76,170. Of its 10 core tasks, 1 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and there Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for meeting, convention, and event planners, 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.
- 01Consult with customers to determine objectives and requirements for events, such as meetings, conferences, and conventions.
- 02Review event bills for accuracy and approve payment.
- 03Coordinate services for events, such as accommodation and transportation for participants, facilities, catering, signage, displays, special needs requirements, printing and event security.
- 04Arrange the availability of audio-visual equipment, transportation, displays, and other event needs.
- 05Confer with staff at a chosen event site to coordinate details.
- 06Inspect event facilities to ensure that they conform to customer requirements.
- 07Maintain records of event aspects, including financial details.Claude.ai: 60% did the task, 40% helped
- 08Monitor event activities to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and laws, satisfaction of participants, and resolution of any problems that arise.
- 09Negotiate contracts with such service providers and suppliers as hotels, convention centers, and speakers.
- 10Evaluate and select providers of services according to customer requirements.
1 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: 0.12% 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, $76,970; West Virginia the least, $35,760. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 1 gap here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $52,180 | $64,990 | $42,370 to $69,790 | 980 |
| Alaska | $54,990 | $68,490 | $44,860 to $64,970 | 150 |
| Arizona | $61,330 | $76,390 | $47,420 to $75,090 | 3,440 |
| Arkansas | $53,040 | $66,060 | $40,160 to $81,140 | 550 |
| California | $71,120 | $88,580 | $56,360 to $87,240 | 20,650 |
| Colorado | $62,050 | $77,280 | $47,930 to $79,450 | 4,650 |
| Connecticut | $70,010 | $87,200 | $50,580 to $88,100 | 1,450 |
| Delaware | $49,020 | $61,050 | $38,480 to $64,730 | 400 |
| District of Columbia | $76,970 | $95,870 | $60,550 to $93,700 | 2,360 |
| Florida | $60,270 | $75,070 | $43,500 to $78,030 | 10,480 |
| Georgia | $49,250 | $61,340 | $35,710 to $67,370 | 5,050 |
| Hawaii | $74,460 | $92,740 | $51,690 to $84,290 | 550 |
| Idaho | Not published | · | · | · |
| Illinois | $59,840 | $74,530 | $44,290 to $79,800 | 5,220 |
| Indiana | $50,090 | $62,390 | $42,370 to $66,370 | 2,140 |
| Iowa | $51,750 | $64,450 | $43,770 to $64,620 | 1,120 |
| Kansas | $54,840 | $68,300 | $41,320 to $75,150 | 920 |
| Kentucky | $49,280 | $61,380 | $38,810 to $62,930 | 1,110 |
| Louisiana | $61,150 | $76,160 | $46,180 to $75,150 | 610 |
| Maine | $57,900 | $72,110 | $51,500 to $70,890 | 490 |
| Maryland | $63,280 | $78,820 | $49,060 to $83,000 | 2,570 |
| Massachusetts | $75,740 | $94,330 | $58,360 to $98,140 | 4,640 |
| Michigan | $52,780 | $65,740 | $44,110 to $65,000 | 3,560 |
| Minnesota | $57,710 | $71,880 | $46,980 to $73,490 | 3,160 |
| Mississippi | $44,680 | $55,650 | $33,860 to $56,450 | 360 |
| Missouri | $56,900 | $70,870 | $44,730 to $66,650 | 2,500 |
| Montana | $49,000 | $61,030 | $39,990 to $60,640 | 350 |
| Nebraska | $52,630 | $65,550 | $48,890 to $61,840 | 610 |
| Nevada | $57,610 | $71,750 | $47,720 to $73,040 | 2,060 |
| New Hampshire | $63,250 | $78,780 | $52,720 to $78,800 | 510 |
| New Jersey | $72,780 | $90,650 | $61,120 to $89,550 | 2,160 |
| New Mexico | $50,820 | $63,300 | $40,610 to $62,080 | 350 |
| New York | $74,730 | $93,080 | $57,260 to $99,160 | 10,330 |
| North Carolina | $54,990 | $68,490 | $39,540 to $71,600 | 4,340 |
| North Dakota | $51,700 | $64,390 | $43,750 to $67,600 | 300 |
| Ohio | $49,900 | $62,150 | $39,050 to $65,210 | 4,750 |
| Oklahoma | $48,990 | $61,020 | $37,240 to $61,910 | 1,440 |
| Oregon | $61,120 | $76,120 | $51,270 to $76,790 | 2,020 |
| Pennsylvania | $58,170 | $72,450 | $45,830 to $74,760 | 3,940 |
| Rhode Island | $59,910 | $74,620 | $45,760 to $65,570 | 890 |
| South Carolina | $51,830 | $64,550 | $39,080 to $65,440 | 1,240 |
| South Dakota | $47,050 | $58,600 | $38,930 to $59,760 | 340 |
| Tennessee | $52,000 | $64,770 | $40,340 to $62,570 | 3,260 |
| Texas | $57,470 | $71,580 | $46,040 to $74,890 | 10,730 |
| Utah | $54,150 | $67,440 | $38,590 to $68,330 | 1,970 |
| Vermont | $74,310 | $92,550 | $57,840 to $87,060 | 430 |
| Virginia | $60,930 | $75,890 | $47,660 to $79,060 | 4,230 |
| Washington | $65,530 | $81,620 | $52,650 to $80,660 | 3,600 |
| West Virginia | $35,760 | $44,540 | $31,200 to $49,160 | 300 |
| Wisconsin | $53,940 | $67,180 | $45,280 to $72,910 | 2,690 |
| Wyoming | $55,550 | $69,190 | $45,130 to $78,520 | 120 |
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 13-1121 (Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners). 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 13-1121.00, 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 $76,170 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