What a medical secretary costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 961,610 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
- $45,930
- Hourly wage
- $22.08
- Loaded per hour
- $27.50
- Middle half earns
- $38,570 to $50,580
- Jobs in the US
- 961,610
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A medical secretary in the US is paid a median $45,930 a year, $22.08 an hour, across 961,610 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $57,210. Of its 10 core tasks, 2 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in every one Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for medical secretaries and administrative assistants, 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.
- 01Answer telephones and direct calls to appropriate staff.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 02Schedule and confirm patient diagnostic appointments, surgeries, or medical consultations.API: 89% did the task, 11% helped
- 03Complete insurance or other claim forms.
- 04Greet visitors, ascertain purpose of visit, and direct them to appropriate staff.
- 05Transmit correspondence or medical records by mail, e-mail, or fax.Claude.ai: 94% did the task, 6% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 06Receive and route messages or documents, such as laboratory results, to appropriate staff.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 07Maintain medical records, technical library, or correspondence files.Claude.ai: 65% did the task, 35% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 08Interview patients to complete documents, case histories, or forms, such as intake or insurance forms.
- 09Operate office equipment, such as voice mail messaging systems, and use word processing, spreadsheet, or other software applications to prepare reports, invoices, financial statements, letters, case histories, or medical records.
- 10Perform bookkeeping duties, such as credits or collections, preparing and sending financial statements or bills, and keeping financial records.
2 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 4 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: 0.01% 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. Washington pays the most, $58,100; Mississippi the least, $36,290.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $36,930 | $46,000 | $33,800 to $44,990 | 16,580 |
| Alaska | $47,870 | $59,620 | $43,800 to $54,730 | 2,520 |
| Arizona | $45,820 | $57,070 | $39,090 to $51,260 | 18,090 |
| Arkansas | $37,000 | $46,080 | $34,880 to $42,400 | 2,190 |
| California | $54,490 | $67,870 | $46,590 to $63,330 | 115,050 |
| Colorado | $46,920 | $58,440 | $41,190 to $50,660 | 11,560 |
| Connecticut | $48,500 | $60,410 | $46,380 to $57,760 | 6,480 |
| Delaware | $44,500 | $55,420 | $38,640 to $47,710 | 4,510 |
| District of Columbia | $49,180 | $61,250 | $46,920 to $58,170 | 1,930 |
| Florida | $41,730 | $51,970 | $37,570 to $47,300 | 96,000 |
| Georgia | $43,160 | $53,760 | $36,910 to $47,780 | 39,380 |
| Hawaii | $49,920 | $62,180 | $45,790 to $55,420 | 2,160 |
| Idaho | $44,920 | $55,950 | $37,890 to $48,440 | 5,120 |
| Illinois | $46,670 | $58,130 | $40,320 to $50,170 | 27,560 |
| Indiana | $44,060 | $54,880 | $38,040 to $47,190 | 21,180 |
| Iowa | $40,980 | $51,040 | $37,560 to $46,980 | 10,560 |
| Kansas | $43,020 | $53,580 | $37,870 to $46,810 | 6,470 |
| Kentucky | $38,750 | $48,260 | $35,940 to $45,950 | 26,430 |
| Louisiana | $36,930 | $46,000 | $34,270 to $44,330 | 2,970 |
| Maine | $46,990 | $58,530 | $43,940 to $49,970 | 4,610 |
| Maryland | $47,850 | $59,600 | $43,350 to $55,580 | 17,290 |
| Massachusetts | $50,290 | $62,640 | $47,480 to $58,910 | 22,210 |
| Michigan | $41,100 | $51,190 | $37,950 to $46,990 | 27,960 |
| Minnesota | $50,030 | $62,310 | $48,100 to $59,290 | 16,860 |
| Mississippi | $36,290 | $45,200 | $31,250 to $43,090 | · |
| Missouri | $43,980 | $54,780 | $37,440 to $48,440 | 12,260 |
| Montana | $43,740 | $54,480 | $38,580 to $47,350 | 4,410 |
| Nebraska | $46,100 | $57,420 | $40,930 to $48,940 | 4,110 |
| Nevada | $46,990 | $58,530 | $39,900 to $49,010 | 7,030 |
| New Hampshire | $48,410 | $60,290 | $45,020 to $53,470 | 3,680 |
| New Jersey | $48,660 | $60,610 | $44,080 to $57,400 | 20,980 |
| New Mexico | $44,230 | $55,090 | $38,570 to $49,150 | 4,590 |
| New York | $47,710 | $59,420 | $44,160 to $56,310 | 57,720 |
| North Carolina | $44,190 | $55,040 | $37,930 to $47,440 | 56,840 |
| North Dakota | $45,390 | $56,530 | $39,430 to $50,210 | 1,120 |
| Ohio | $44,280 | $55,150 | $38,700 to $47,980 | 29,110 |
| Oklahoma | $38,330 | $47,740 | $35,550 to $45,900 | 8,430 |
| Oregon | $50,130 | $62,440 | $46,510 to $59,370 | 16,840 |
| Pennsylvania | $44,930 | $55,960 | $39,520 to $49,030 | 27,600 |
| Rhode Island | $46,860 | $58,360 | $45,730 to $55,690 | 2,350 |
| South Carolina | $40,170 | $50,030 | $36,940 to $46,690 | 15,630 |
| South Dakota | $45,810 | $57,060 | $43,970 to $47,890 | 80 |
| Tennessee | $39,940 | $49,750 | $36,320 to $46,730 | 41,810 |
| Texas | $42,910 | $53,440 | $37,170 to $47,850 | 78,740 |
| Utah | $44,330 | $55,210 | $37,390 to $49,150 | 5,260 |
| Vermont | $48,200 | $60,030 | $45,160 to $57,370 | 2,390 |
| Virginia | $46,180 | $57,520 | $39,500 to $48,720 | 27,600 |
| Washington | $58,100 | $72,360 | $48,510 to $62,840 | 10,960 |
| West Virginia | $38,430 | $47,860 | $36,160 to $46,260 | 1,550 |
| Wisconsin | $48,380 | $60,260 | $46,490 to $51,900 | 7,760 |
| Wyoming | $44,430 | $55,340 | $38,200 to $49,250 | 1,110 |
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 43-6013 (Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants). 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 43-6013.00, 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 $57,210 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