What a receptionist costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 910,180 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
- $38,010
- Hourly wage
- $18.27
- Loaded per hour
- $22.76
- Middle half earns
- $33,960 to $45,130
- Jobs in the US
- 910,180
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A receptionist in the US is paid a median $38,010 a year, $18.27 an hour, across 910,180 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $47,340. Of its 10 core tasks, 6 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 4 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for receptionists and information clerks, 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.
- 01Operate telephone switchboard to answer, screen, or forward calls, providing information, taking messages, or scheduling appointments.
- 02Greet persons entering establishment, determine nature and purpose of visit, and direct or escort them to specific destinations.
- 03Receive payment and record receipts for services.
- 04Schedule appointments and maintain and update appointment calendars.Claude.ai: 82% did the task, 18% helped · API: 93% did the task
- 05Transmit information or documents to customers, using computer, mail, or facsimile machine.Claude.ai: 98% did the task, 2% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 06Hear and resolve complaints from customers or the public.Claude.ai: 45% did the task, 55% helped · API: 96% did the task
- 07File and maintain records.Claude.ai: 97% did the task, 3% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 08Provide information about establishment, such as location of departments or offices, employees within the organization, or services provided.Claude.ai: 37% did the task, 63% helped · API: 91% did the task
- 09Perform administrative support tasks, such as proofreading, transcribing handwritten information, or operating calculators or computers to work with pay records, invoices, balance sheets, or other documents.Claude.ai: 53% did the task, 47% helped · API: 100% did the task
- 10Collect, sort, distribute, or prepare mail, messages, or courier deliveries.
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: 0.37% 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, $49,060; Mississippi the least, $31,160.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $32,590 | $40,590 | $28,120 to $36,660 | 10,460 |
| Alaska | $44,720 | $55,700 | $38,370 to $50,070 | 1,530 |
| Arizona | $38,730 | $48,240 | $35,530 to $44,670 | 23,220 |
| Arkansas | $34,840 | $43,390 | $30,290 to $37,320 | 10,870 |
| California | $44,100 | $54,930 | $39,050 to $48,690 | 82,470 |
| Colorado | $42,010 | $52,320 | $36,510 to $46,860 | 11,020 |
| Connecticut | $40,630 | $50,600 | $36,250 to $47,160 | 14,980 |
| Delaware | $36,310 | $45,220 | $32,790 to $42,560 | 2,880 |
| District of Columbia | $49,060 | $61,100 | $39,850 to $57,760 | 2,000 |
| Florida | $36,810 | $45,850 | $32,730 to $41,590 | 63,280 |
| Georgia | $36,100 | $44,960 | $29,540 to $41,670 | 26,080 |
| Hawaii | $41,600 | $51,810 | $37,770 to $47,840 | 3,510 |
| Idaho | $36,810 | $45,850 | $32,210 to $42,520 | 5,340 |
| Illinois | $37,400 | $46,580 | $34,510 to $44,260 | 40,370 |
| Indiana | $36,160 | $45,040 | $29,790 to $41,750 | 17,360 |
| Iowa | $37,330 | $46,490 | $32,080 to $42,560 | 4,660 |
| Kansas | $36,050 | $44,900 | $31,210 to $39,520 | 7,290 |
| Kentucky | $32,940 | $41,030 | $28,420 to $38,440 | 9,290 |
| Louisiana | $32,750 | $40,790 | $27,930 to $37,090 | 12,820 |
| Maine | $42,440 | $52,860 | $38,470 to $46,780 | 3,440 |
| Maryland | $38,100 | $47,450 | $34,900 to $44,790 | 18,390 |
| Massachusetts | $43,870 | $54,640 | $38,190 to $47,840 | 18,970 |
| Michigan | $37,470 | $46,670 | $34,140 to $42,450 | 25,230 |
| Minnesota | $37,510 | $46,720 | $31,600 to $44,530 | 11,800 |
| Mississippi | $31,160 | $38,810 | $26,780 to $36,420 | 6,920 |
| Missouri | $35,740 | $44,510 | $31,600 to $39,590 | 18,890 |
| Montana | $37,360 | $46,530 | $33,080 to $42,840 | 1,280 |
| Nebraska | $37,860 | $47,150 | $33,860 to $42,640 | 6,750 |
| Nevada | $37,050 | $46,150 | $33,280 to $43,710 | 10,650 |
| New Hampshire | $38,160 | $47,530 | $31,010 to $46,270 | 5,320 |
| New Jersey | $41,650 | $51,880 | $36,600 to $46,980 | 42,060 |
| New Mexico | $35,140 | $43,770 | $29,910 to $38,240 | 5,650 |
| New York | $43,080 | $53,660 | $37,470 to $49,080 | 65,010 |
| North Carolina | $35,440 | $44,140 | $29,120 to $40,050 | 20,080 |
| North Dakota | $39,530 | $49,230 | $35,250 to $46,170 | 1,930 |
| Ohio | $35,920 | $44,740 | $29,910 to $39,520 | 30,850 |
| Oklahoma | $34,560 | $43,040 | $28,180 to $37,500 | 9,380 |
| Oregon | $40,900 | $50,940 | $36,840 to $46,510 | 13,590 |
| Pennsylvania | $36,810 | $45,850 | $30,700 to $42,930 | 37,830 |
| Rhode Island | $42,620 | $53,080 | $36,110 to $46,920 | 4,270 |
| South Carolina | $35,510 | $44,230 | $29,370 to $40,580 | 11,280 |
| South Dakota | $38,280 | $47,680 | $31,930 to $44,030 | 5,760 |
| Tennessee | $34,910 | $43,480 | $29,380 to $39,840 | 11,460 |
| Texas | $35,210 | $43,850 | $29,160 to $40,210 | 78,330 |
| Utah | $36,960 | $46,030 | $31,750 to $42,630 | 12,020 |
| Vermont | $38,370 | $47,790 | $35,090 to $42,320 | 1,160 |
| Virginia | $37,060 | $46,160 | $31,660 to $43,870 | 23,360 |
| Washington | $44,710 | $55,690 | $38,980 to $49,110 | 26,500 |
| West Virginia | $31,920 | $39,760 | $28,230 to $36,880 | 5,470 |
| Wisconsin | $41,150 | $51,250 | $36,000 to $46,570 | 25,580 |
| Wyoming | $37,480 | $46,680 | $33,860 to $43,680 | 1,540 |
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 43-4171 (Receptionists and Information Clerks). 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 43-4171.00, 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 $47,340 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