What a PR specialist costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 283,380 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
- $74,750
- Hourly wage
- $35.94
- Loaded per hour
- $44.76
- Middle half earns
- $56,260 to $100,370
- Jobs in the US
- 283,380
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A PR specialist in the US is paid a median $74,750 a year, $35.94 an hour, across 283,380 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $93,100. Of its 10 core tasks, 6 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 public relations 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.
- 01Respond to requests for information from the media or designate an appropriate spokesperson or information source.API: 56% did the task, 44% helped
- 02Plan or direct development or communication of programs to maintain favorable public or stockholder perceptions of an organization's accomplishments, agenda, or environmental responsibility.Claude.ai: 31% did the task, 69% helped
- 03Post and update content on the company's Web site and social media outlets.Claude.ai: 79% did the task, 21% helped · API: 93% did the task
- 04Write press releases or other media communications to promote clients.Claude.ai: 33% did the task, 67% helped
- 05Establish or maintain cooperative relationships with representatives of community, consumer, employee, or public interest groups.
- 06Confer with other managers to identify trends or key group interests or concerns or to provide advice on business decisions.
- 07Coach client representatives in effective communication with the public or with employees.Claude.ai: 36% did the task, 64% helped · API: 81% did the task
- 08Study the objectives, promotional policies, or needs of organizations to develop public relations strategies that will influence public opinion or promote ideas, products, or services.Claude.ai: 37% did the task, 63% helped · API: 82% did the task
- 09Prepare or edit organizational publications, such as employee newsletters or stockholders' reports, for internal or external audiences.Claude.ai: 39% did the task, 61% helped · API: 86% did the task
- 10Arrange public appearances, lectures, contests, or exhibits for clients to increase product or service awareness or to promote goodwill.
6 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 1 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: 0.33% 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, $102,740; West Virginia the least, $56,730.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $61,710 | $76,860 | $48,130 to $82,360 | 2,410 |
| Alaska | $70,050 | $87,250 | $61,680 to $91,920 | 640 |
| Arizona | $66,710 | $83,090 | $52,580 to $85,950 | 5,350 |
| Arkansas | $65,000 | $80,960 | $49,980 to $96,060 | 980 |
| California | $85,030 | $105,900 | $64,460 to $121,180 | 32,710 |
| Colorado | $80,680 | $100,490 | $64,090 to $105,190 | 7,410 |
| Connecticut | $84,990 | $105,860 | $62,160 to $122,400 | 1,910 |
| Delaware | $76,120 | $94,810 | $59,870 to $94,320 | 930 |
| District of Columbia | $102,740 | $127,960 | $78,200 to $149,120 | 16,720 |
| Florida | $63,660 | $79,290 | $48,340 to $83,190 | 17,820 |
| Georgia | $73,200 | $91,170 | $56,150 to $98,060 | 6,860 |
| Hawaii | $63,880 | $79,560 | $50,640 to $81,900 | 1,800 |
| Idaho | $61,110 | $76,110 | $45,400 to $84,070 | 1,220 |
| Illinois | $76,380 | $95,130 | $59,400 to $102,950 | 6,200 |
| Indiana | $64,900 | $80,830 | $51,700 to $83,480 | 3,750 |
| Iowa | $62,970 | $78,430 | $49,040 to $81,450 | 2,890 |
| Kansas | $64,860 | $80,780 | $50,540 to $83,430 | 2,340 |
| Kentucky | $60,150 | $74,920 | $47,920 to $77,670 | 2,580 |
| Louisiana | $60,470 | $75,320 | $49,490 to $77,890 | 1,710 |
| Maine | $62,450 | $77,780 | $48,130 to $79,940 | 1,400 |
| Maryland | $79,560 | $99,090 | $58,600 to $108,160 | 4,190 |
| Massachusetts | $79,660 | $99,220 | $61,410 to $107,220 | 6,760 |
| Michigan | $65,300 | $81,330 | $50,160 to $86,770 | 7,510 |
| Minnesota | $68,620 | $85,470 | $54,880 to $89,500 | 8,260 |
| Mississippi | $59,810 | $74,490 | $46,220 to $77,910 | 950 |
| Missouri | $61,130 | $76,140 | $47,700 to $78,220 | 4,820 |
| Montana | $63,780 | $79,440 | $50,470 to $75,820 | 1,760 |
| Nebraska | $61,780 | $76,950 | $50,250 to $78,870 | 1,590 |
| Nevada | $73,840 | $91,970 | $53,450 to $93,120 | 1,600 |
| New Hampshire | $73,280 | $91,270 | $59,000 to $96,100 | 1,140 |
| New Jersey | $80,130 | $99,800 | $58,410 to $105,030 | 4,980 |
| New Mexico | $68,700 | $85,570 | $53,540 to $89,670 | 1,130 |
| New York | $81,250 | $101,200 | $63,420 to $107,920 | 28,250 |
| North Carolina | $67,230 | $83,730 | $51,530 to $89,990 | 9,910 |
| North Dakota | $70,280 | $87,530 | $57,240 to $85,980 | 640 |
| Ohio | $64,840 | $80,760 | $50,040 to $85,890 | 6,670 |
| Oklahoma | $64,920 | $80,860 | $49,730 to $88,610 | 2,280 |
| Oregon | $74,900 | $93,290 | $55,970 to $100,330 | 4,510 |
| Pennsylvania | $57,460 | $71,570 | $45,930 to $77,480 | 11,180 |
| Rhode Island | $77,540 | $96,580 | $63,310 to $102,280 | 1,140 |
| South Carolina | $62,730 | $78,130 | $49,150 to $92,560 | 2,950 |
| South Dakota | $64,520 | $80,360 | $55,990 to $83,480 | 210 |
| Tennessee | $60,900 | $75,850 | $47,320 to $79,210 | 3,380 |
| Texas | $65,160 | $81,160 | $50,480 to $85,370 | 25,220 |
| Utah | $62,670 | $78,060 | $49,920 to $89,190 | 1,800 |
| Vermont | $66,060 | $82,280 | $54,080 to $80,880 | 1,260 |
| Virginia | $80,380 | $100,110 | $60,610 to $111,600 | 9,990 |
| Washington | $87,470 | $108,940 | $71,140 to $111,890 | 6,430 |
| West Virginia | $56,730 | $70,660 | $47,740 to $72,240 | 350 |
| Wisconsin | $67,240 | $83,750 | $56,830 to $83,430 | 4,410 |
| Wyoming | $67,490 | $84,060 | $60,160 to $80,980 | 480 |
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 27-3031 (Public Relations 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 27-3031.00, 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 $93,100 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