What a marketing manager costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 395,240 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
- $166,790
- Hourly wage
- $80.19
- Loaded per hour
- $99.88
- Middle half earns
- $123,020 to $216,410
- Jobs in the US
- 395,240
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A marketing manager in the US is paid a median $166,790 a year, $80.19 an hour, across 395,240 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $207,740. Of its 10 core tasks, 6 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 2 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for marketing managers, 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.
- 01Formulate, direct, or coordinate marketing activities or policies to promote products or services, working with advertising or promotion managers.Claude.ai: 35% did the task, 65% helped · API: 95% did the task
- 02Use sales forecasting or strategic planning to ensure the sale and profitability of products, lines, or services, analyzing business developments and monitoring market trends.Claude.ai: 39% did the task, 61% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 03Identify, develop, or evaluate marketing strategy, based on knowledge of establishment objectives, market characteristics, and cost and markup factors.Claude.ai: 38% did the task, 62% helped · API: 92% did the task
- 04Direct the hiring, training, or performance evaluations of marketing or sales staff and oversee their daily activities.
- 05Evaluate the financial aspects of product development, such as budgets, expenditures, research and development appropriations, or return-on-investment and profit-loss projections.Claude.ai: 30% did the task, 70% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 06Develop pricing strategies, balancing firm objectives and customer satisfaction.
- 07Initiate market research studies, or analyze their findings.Claude.ai: 51% did the task, 49% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 08Compile lists describing product or service offerings.Claude.ai: 57% did the task, 43% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 09Consult with product development personnel on product specifications, such as design, color, or packaging.
- 10Recommend modifications to products, packaging, production processes, or other characteristics to improve the environmental soundness or sustainability of products.
6 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: 0.53% 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. Massachusetts pays the most, $212,020; West Virginia the least, $98,750. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 3 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $120,160 | $149,660 | $89,950 to $164,800 | 1,540 |
| Alaska | $116,270 | $144,810 | $99,430 to $152,910 | 240 |
| Arizona | $132,220 | $164,680 | $119,000 to $172,000 | 4,870 |
| Arkansas | $136,520 | $170,040 | $97,280 to $178,310 | 1,860 |
| California | $193,620 | $241,150 | $139,950 to $271,360 | 54,660 |
| Colorado | $182,730 | $227,590 | $149,100 to $223,470 | 6,010 |
| Connecticut | $169,240 | $210,790 | $130,400 to $219,830 | 5,800 |
| Delaware | Not published | · | · | 1,060 |
| District of Columbia | $177,170 | $220,670 | $139,510 to $231,330 | 3,470 |
| Florida | $142,620 | $177,630 | $104,010 to $203,490 | 24,820 |
| Georgia | $160,760 | $200,230 | $122,320 to $205,400 | 8,510 |
| Hawaii | $117,770 | $146,680 | $92,510 to $164,810 | 570 |
| Idaho | $142,090 | $176,970 | $102,630 to $197,240 | 1,320 |
| Illinois | $162,860 | $202,840 | $124,300 to $212,040 | 21,140 |
| Indiana | $136,260 | $169,710 | $104,070 to $178,210 | 3,350 |
| Iowa | $131,120 | $163,310 | $103,550 to $166,830 | 2,210 |
| Kansas | $154,510 | $192,440 | $116,620 to $202,580 | 1,570 |
| Kentucky | $128,930 | $160,580 | $93,780 to $170,720 | 1,930 |
| Louisiana | $120,650 | $150,270 | $85,770 to $155,140 | 940 |
| Maine | $135,380 | $168,620 | $112,760 to $186,160 | 1,320 |
| Maryland | $154,160 | $192,010 | $107,010 to $200,080 | 6,510 |
| Massachusetts | $212,020 | $264,070 | $167,290 to $261,420 | 14,270 |
| Michigan | $138,510 | $172,510 | $104,320 to $181,720 | 6,620 |
| Minnesota | $173,300 | $215,850 | $130,610 to $219,250 | 8,500 |
| Mississippi | $100,940 | $125,720 | $75,170 to $156,020 | 770 |
| Missouri | $130,550 | $162,600 | $100,120 to $173,580 | 6,550 |
| Montana | $165,580 | $206,230 | $114,430 to $207,160 | · |
| Nebraska | $110,570 | $137,710 | $93,950 to $145,660 | 1,910 |
| Nevada | $107,550 | $133,950 | $83,270 to $167,660 | 3,430 |
| New Hampshire | $143,280 | $178,460 | $132,740 to $187,870 | 1,460 |
| New Jersey | $180,040 | $224,240 | $153,650 to $228,520 | 13,510 |
| New Mexico | $122,980 | $153,170 | $85,770 to $161,550 | 800 |
| New York | $181,200 | $225,680 | $140,140 to $233,730 | 54,000 |
| North Carolina | $165,480 | $206,110 | $127,120 to $210,580 | 10,790 |
| North Dakota | $125,580 | $156,410 | $103,980 to $157,830 | 180 |
| Ohio | $132,330 | $164,820 | $102,000 to $175,750 | 10,620 |
| Oklahoma | $126,920 | $158,080 | $96,940 to $162,480 | 1,420 |
| Oregon | $161,560 | $201,220 | $119,790 to $215,250 | 4,960 |
| Pennsylvania | $150,810 | $187,830 | $104,680 to $207,490 | 13,840 |
| Rhode Island | Not published | · | · | · |
| South Carolina | $143,290 | $178,470 | $105,170 to $192,520 | 3,760 |
| South Dakota | $167,750 | $208,930 | $121,070 to $233,820 | 220 |
| Tennessee | $131,990 | $164,390 | $98,810 to $173,180 | 7,730 |
| Texas | $147,880 | $184,180 | $106,110 to $200,430 | 44,680 |
| Utah | $139,830 | $174,160 | $104,720 to $179,180 | 6,100 |
| Vermont | Not published | · | · | · |
| Virginia | $187,820 | $233,930 | $142,820 to $246,900 | 6,890 |
| Washington | $172,270 | $214,560 | $127,660 to $224,170 | 8,880 |
| West Virginia | $98,750 | $122,990 | $80,200 to $150,170 | 300 |
| Wisconsin | $133,600 | $166,400 | $104,980 to $176,080 | 4,890 |
| Wyoming | $161,580 | $201,250 | $117,470 to $193,100 | 100 |
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 11-2021 (Marketing Managers). 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 11-2021.00, 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 $207,740 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