What an IT support specialist costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 717,190 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
- $61,860
- Hourly wage
- $29.74
- Loaded per hour
- $37.04
- Middle half earns
- $49,000 to $79,040
- Jobs in the US
- 717,190
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
An IT support specialist in the US is paid a median $61,860 a year, $29.74 an hour, across 717,190 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $77,050. Of its 10 core tasks, 8 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 6 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for computer user support specialists, 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.
- 01Oversee the daily performance of computer systems.Claude.ai: 100% did the task, 0% helped · API: 100% did the task
- 02Read technical manuals, confer with users, or conduct computer diagnostics to investigate and resolve problems or to provide technical assistance and support.Claude.ai: 53% did the task, 47% helped · API: 92% did the task
- 03Set up equipment for employee use, performing or ensuring proper installation of cables, operating systems, or appropriate software.
- 04Answer user inquiries regarding computer software or hardware operation to resolve problems.Claude.ai: 66% did the task, 34% helped · API: 77% did the task
- 05Install and perform minor repairs to hardware, software, or peripheral equipment, following design or installation specifications.Claude.ai: 94% did the task, 6% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 06Confer with staff, users, and management to establish requirements for new systems or modifications.Claude.ai: 41% did the task, 59% helped
- 07Enter commands and observe system functioning to verify correct operations and detect errors.Claude.ai: 96% did the task, 4% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 08Maintain records of daily data communication transactions, problems and remedial actions taken, or installation activities.Claude.ai: 99% did the task, 1% helped · API: 100% did the task
- 09Refer major hardware or software problems or defective products to vendors or technicians for service.
- 10Prepare evaluations of software or hardware, and recommend improvements or upgrades.Claude.ai: 39% did the task, 61% helped · API: 89% did the task
8 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: 2.17% 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, $80,950; Arkansas the least, $46,360.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $49,630 | $61,810 | $42,260 to $61,300 | 7,360 |
| Alaska | $63,110 | $78,600 | $52,420 to $75,550 | 950 |
| Arizona | $61,410 | $76,490 | $48,910 to $76,610 | 18,780 |
| Arkansas | $46,360 | $57,740 | $39,510 to $60,060 | 4,390 |
| California | $79,570 | $99,100 | $62,790 to $101,780 | 74,490 |
| Colorado | $71,900 | $89,550 | $58,690 to $90,040 | 16,740 |
| Connecticut | $70,210 | $87,450 | $56,720 to $85,590 | 9,300 |
| Delaware | $62,160 | $77,420 | $50,480 to $77,170 | 1,890 |
| District of Columbia | $80,950 | $100,820 | $66,410 to $100,730 | 3,140 |
| Florida | $58,740 | $73,160 | $46,990 to $74,850 | 51,220 |
| Georgia | $60,440 | $75,280 | $48,170 to $78,330 | 25,980 |
| Hawaii | $56,760 | $70,690 | $48,570 to $72,800 | 2,440 |
| Idaho | $59,170 | $73,700 | $47,840 to $77,460 | 3,650 |
| Illinois | $59,860 | $74,560 | $47,190 to $76,660 | 26,060 |
| Indiana | $56,510 | $70,380 | $46,330 to $66,200 | 13,540 |
| Iowa | $58,810 | $73,250 | $47,820 to $73,700 | 6,140 |
| Kansas | $56,150 | $69,930 | $47,470 to $64,890 | 6,780 |
| Kentucky | $57,850 | $72,050 | $44,980 to $71,790 | 9,460 |
| Louisiana | $52,440 | $65,310 | $45,050 to $65,350 | 4,780 |
| Maine | $60,890 | $75,840 | $52,650 to $73,900 | 2,810 |
| Maryland | $64,750 | $80,650 | $51,270 to $82,560 | 12,200 |
| Massachusetts | $75,070 | $93,500 | $60,540 to $91,020 | 17,570 |
| Michigan | $56,240 | $70,050 | $46,220 to $70,000 | 22,090 |
| Minnesota | $63,630 | $79,250 | $54,450 to $78,710 | 15,320 |
| Mississippi | $52,230 | $65,050 | $43,830 to $64,740 | 3,830 |
| Missouri | $59,770 | $74,440 | $47,380 to $73,330 | 13,510 |
| Montana | $58,460 | $72,810 | $49,050 to $65,070 | 1,640 |
| Nebraska | $60,830 | $75,760 | $49,030 to $64,980 | 6,380 |
| Nevada | $57,870 | $72,080 | $47,290 to $72,080 | 6,560 |
| New Hampshire | $60,660 | $75,550 | $48,160 to $75,930 | 3,910 |
| New Jersey | $64,470 | $80,300 | $52,000 to $82,090 | 18,200 |
| New Mexico | $53,280 | $66,360 | $45,610 to $61,920 | 3,290 |
| New York | $72,560 | $90,370 | $56,510 to $91,150 | 39,100 |
| North Carolina | $60,120 | $74,880 | $47,520 to $77,130 | 23,100 |
| North Dakota | $61,310 | $76,360 | $49,780 to $77,380 | 1,400 |
| Ohio | $59,720 | $74,380 | $47,890 to $73,440 | 22,370 |
| Oklahoma | $52,040 | $64,820 | $44,400 to $65,320 | 9,600 |
| Oregon | $62,840 | $78,270 | $53,500 to $79,070 | 8,850 |
| Pennsylvania | $58,670 | $73,070 | $47,190 to $73,230 | 30,560 |
| Rhode Island | $62,510 | $77,860 | $51,490 to $75,690 | 1,780 |
| South Carolina | $52,080 | $64,870 | $44,160 to $66,320 | 9,880 |
| South Dakota | $48,260 | $60,110 | $40,750 to $59,080 | 1,240 |
| Tennessee | $55,990 | $69,740 | $47,010 to $66,700 | 11,920 |
| Texas | $59,490 | $74,090 | $47,270 to $72,820 | 72,030 |
| Utah | $61,110 | $76,110 | $47,390 to $77,880 | 11,120 |
| Vermont | $63,030 | $78,500 | $54,900 to $80,620 | 1,630 |
| Virginia | $65,040 | $81,010 | $51,460 to $80,870 | 20,910 |
| Washington | $75,220 | $93,690 | $60,160 to $92,760 | 21,860 |
| West Virginia | $55,350 | $68,940 | $46,650 to $68,900 | 2,250 |
| Wisconsin | $58,810 | $73,250 | $49,000 to $69,690 | 12,400 |
| Wyoming | $65,100 | $81,080 | $50,940 to $71,760 | 790 |
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 15-1232 (Computer User Support Specialists). 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 15-1232.00, 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 $77,050 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