What a marketing specialist costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 899,580 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
- $78,760
- Hourly wage
- $37.87
- Loaded per hour
- $47.17
- Middle half earns
- $58,350 to $108,310
- Jobs in the US
- 899,580
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A marketing specialist in the US is paid a median $78,760 a year, $37.87 an hour, across 899,580 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $98,100. Of its 10 core tasks, 3 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 1 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for market research analysts and marketing 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.
- 01Prepare reports of findings, illustrating data graphically and translating complex findings into written text.Claude.ai: 60% did the task, 40% helped · API: 96% did the task
- 02Seek and provide information to help companies determine their position in the marketplace.API: 97% did the task, 3% helped
- 03Conduct research on consumer opinions and marketing strategies, collaborating with marketing professionals, statisticians, pollsters, and other professionals.
- 04Collect and analyze data on customer demographics, preferences, needs, and buying habits to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand.Claude.ai: 40% did the task, 60% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 05Devise and evaluate methods and procedures for collecting data, such as surveys, opinion polls, or questionnaires, or arrange to obtain existing data.
- 06Gather data on competitors and analyze their prices, sales, and method of marketing and distribution.Claude.ai: 42% did the task, 58% helped · API: 95% did the task
- 07Measure and assess customer and employee satisfaction.
- 08Monitor industry statistics and follow trends in trade literature.
- 09Measure the effectiveness of marketing, advertising, and communications programs and strategies.API: 94% did the task, 6% helped
- 10Direct trained survey interviewers.
3 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 2 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: 0.21% 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, $101,810; West Virginia the least, $52,340.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $59,530 | $74,140 | $46,330 to $79,690 | 8,390 |
| Alaska | $66,710 | $83,090 | $53,560 to $82,480 | 570 |
| Arizona | $71,940 | $89,600 | $49,980 to $97,800 | 15,850 |
| Arkansas | $65,430 | $81,490 | $47,730 to $102,420 | 6,250 |
| California | $94,700 | $117,950 | $65,290 to $134,630 | 119,070 |
| Colorado | $93,050 | $115,890 | $64,380 to $126,670 | 27,880 |
| Connecticut | $77,740 | $96,830 | $58,210 to $104,380 | 9,930 |
| Delaware | $101,270 | $126,130 | $78,040 to $135,880 | 3,570 |
| District of Columbia | $98,090 | $122,170 | $74,990 to $132,300 | 6,340 |
| Florida | $75,450 | $93,970 | $52,650 to $99,600 | 60,770 |
| Georgia | $75,850 | $94,470 | $51,440 to $107,260 | 27,810 |
| Hawaii | $59,390 | $73,970 | $42,040 to $79,390 | 1,610 |
| Idaho | $60,970 | $75,940 | $47,370 to $84,310 | 3,780 |
| Illinois | $79,120 | $98,540 | $60,210 to $104,800 | 40,560 |
| Indiana | $63,700 | $79,340 | $49,110 to $86,080 | 14,400 |
| Iowa | $66,390 | $82,690 | $50,010 to $85,680 | 8,880 |
| Kansas | $70,430 | $87,720 | $52,850 to $96,760 | 8,090 |
| Kentucky | $61,480 | $76,570 | $47,950 to $78,290 | 6,290 |
| Louisiana | $59,690 | $74,340 | $45,760 to $82,660 | 5,360 |
| Maine | $71,980 | $89,650 | $54,460 to $98,820 | 2,390 |
| Maryland | $76,370 | $95,120 | $57,040 to $100,340 | 13,570 |
| Massachusetts | $101,810 | $126,800 | $77,220 to $133,460 | 39,710 |
| Michigan | $66,780 | $83,170 | $49,990 to $97,820 | 24,220 |
| Minnesota | $87,510 | $108,990 | $63,850 to $123,720 | 21,280 |
| Mississippi | $56,640 | $70,550 | $42,840 to $73,980 | 2,620 |
| Missouri | $70,140 | $87,360 | $48,680 to $100,710 | 14,890 |
| Montana | $68,080 | $84,790 | $53,190 to $80,730 | 1,460 |
| Nebraska | $60,000 | $74,730 | $47,600 to $79,110 | 3,780 |
| Nevada | $71,840 | $89,480 | $51,320 to $95,680 | 5,780 |
| New Hampshire | $64,570 | $80,420 | $52,370 to $96,450 | 4,200 |
| New Jersey | $88,190 | $109,840 | $68,150 to $113,480 | 22,990 |
| New Mexico | $61,950 | $77,160 | $48,770 to $78,740 | 1,610 |
| New York | $98,580 | $122,780 | $72,600 to $129,430 | 80,500 |
| North Carolina | $78,410 | $97,660 | $58,430 to $109,810 | 30,700 |
| North Dakota | $61,580 | $76,700 | $48,880 to $79,880 | 1,550 |
| Ohio | $72,790 | $90,660 | $52,420 to $98,070 | 27,370 |
| Oklahoma | $61,940 | $77,150 | $45,370 to $82,750 | 6,620 |
| Oregon | $79,150 | $98,580 | $60,860 to $107,990 | 11,310 |
| Pennsylvania | $68,760 | $85,640 | $49,790 to $96,670 | 31,040 |
| Rhode Island | $86,240 | $107,410 | $63,270 to $103,340 | 3,210 |
| South Carolina | $69,440 | $86,490 | $51,410 to $100,020 | 11,920 |
| South Dakota | $63,490 | $79,080 | $52,150 to $88,360 | 1,530 |
| Tennessee | $69,790 | $86,920 | $51,820 to $96,520 | 13,040 |
| Texas | $72,520 | $90,320 | $52,060 to $98,320 | 63,350 |
| Utah | $62,630 | $78,010 | $46,010 to $85,450 | 14,510 |
| Vermont | $74,880 | $93,260 | $61,290 to $89,990 | 860 |
| Virginia | $76,980 | $95,880 | $56,930 to $105,620 | 25,610 |
| Washington | $95,120 | $118,470 | $67,590 to $139,560 | 24,460 |
| West Virginia | $52,340 | $65,190 | $38,250 to $69,550 | 1,650 |
| Wisconsin | $64,800 | $80,710 | $52,450 to $89,560 | 15,600 |
| Wyoming | $60,990 | $75,960 | $47,590 to $78,010 | 850 |
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 13-1161 (Market Research Analysts and Marketing 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 13-1161.00, 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 $98,100 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