What a system administrator costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 314,340 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
- $99,130
- Hourly wage
- $47.66
- Loaded per hour
- $59.36
- Middle half earns
- $78,010 to $126,640
- Jobs in the US
- 314,340
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A system administrator in the US is paid a median $99,130 a year, $47.66 an hour, across 314,340 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $123,470. Of its 10 core tasks, 3 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 network and computer systems administrators, 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.
- 01Plan, coordinate, and implement network security measures to protect data, software, and hardware.API: 94% did the task, 6% helped
- 02Perform data backups and disaster recovery operations.Claude.ai: 97% did the task, 3% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 03Diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve hardware, software, or other network and system problems, and replace defective components when necessary.Claude.ai: 97% did the task, 3% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 04Maintain and administer computer networks and related computing environments, including computer hardware, systems software, applications software, and all configurations.API: 98% did the task, 2% helped
- 05Configure, monitor, and maintain email applications or virus protection software.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 06Confer with network users about solutions to existing system problems.Claude.ai: 85% did the task, 15% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 07Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to coordinate computer network access and use.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 08Maintain logs related to network functions, as well as maintenance and repair records.
- 09Monitor network performance to determine whether adjustments are needed and where changes will be needed in the future.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 10Design, configure, and test computer hardware, networking software and operating system software.
3 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 5 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: 0.16% 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. Maryland pays the most, $118,290; West Virginia the least, $74,490.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $81,400 | $101,380 | $64,800 to $104,260 | 5,040 |
| Alaska | $97,500 | $121,440 | $76,780 to $104,030 | 920 |
| Arizona | $90,280 | $112,440 | $74,950 to $113,420 | 5,810 |
| Arkansas | $81,590 | $101,620 | $64,650 to $104,590 | 1,750 |
| California | $106,440 | $132,570 | $88,680 to $134,190 | 26,170 |
| Colorado | $103,370 | $128,750 | $85,390 to $130,230 | 8,360 |
| Connecticut | $105,880 | $131,870 | $85,830 to $132,190 | 2,170 |
| Delaware | $94,200 | $117,330 | $71,970 to $122,140 | 850 |
| District of Columbia | $110,970 | $138,210 | $98,480 to $137,030 | 1,320 |
| Florida | $95,200 | $118,570 | $73,800 to $118,450 | 26,890 |
| Georgia | $97,170 | $121,030 | $76,980 to $122,730 | 9,190 |
| Hawaii | $101,450 | $126,360 | $84,300 to $129,470 | 1,490 |
| Idaho | $91,880 | $114,440 | $76,850 to $107,160 | 1,010 |
| Illinois | $100,080 | $124,650 | $79,520 to $128,790 | 9,820 |
| Indiana | $84,550 | $105,310 | $70,680 to $104,450 | 4,310 |
| Iowa | $84,500 | $105,240 | $70,470 to $105,210 | 3,110 |
| Kansas | $83,340 | $103,800 | $68,580 to $106,000 | 4,100 |
| Kentucky | $87,020 | $108,380 | $70,710 to $106,950 | 2,800 |
| Louisiana | $90,160 | $112,290 | $74,260 to $107,580 | 1,790 |
| Maine | $83,890 | $104,480 | $72,090 to $103,320 | 920 |
| Maryland | $118,290 | $147,330 | $90,900 to $156,360 | 9,230 |
| Massachusetts | $110,980 | $138,230 | $91,950 to $136,810 | 8,270 |
| Michigan | $92,750 | $115,520 | $76,080 to $108,440 | 6,900 |
| Minnesota | $101,870 | $126,880 | $83,020 to $129,200 | 4,550 |
| Mississippi | $79,990 | $99,630 | $65,750 to $103,700 | 1,380 |
| Missouri | $80,870 | $100,720 | $63,290 to $103,790 | 5,810 |
| Montana | $80,950 | $100,820 | $67,760 to $95,300 | 850 |
| Nebraska | $84,700 | $105,490 | $67,890 to $110,530 | 1,560 |
| Nevada | $103,440 | $128,830 | $83,040 to $129,230 | 1,980 |
| New Hampshire | $100,230 | $124,840 | $83,930 to $121,220 | 1,660 |
| New Jersey | $116,420 | $145,000 | $90,440 to $137,990 | 9,280 |
| New Mexico | $90,790 | $113,080 | $75,270 to $104,990 | 1,220 |
| New York | $105,810 | $131,790 | $83,630 to $134,390 | 18,220 |
| North Carolina | $95,230 | $118,610 | $72,090 to $124,100 | 13,850 |
| North Dakota | $86,450 | $107,670 | $73,290 to $101,860 | 930 |
| Ohio | $97,570 | $121,520 | $77,990 to $128,930 | 15,130 |
| Oklahoma | $83,990 | $104,610 | $67,980 to $102,720 | 2,580 |
| Oregon | $102,000 | $127,040 | $84,220 to $121,620 | 4,880 |
| Pennsylvania | $86,140 | $107,290 | $71,150 to $105,840 | 7,750 |
| Rhode Island | $103,100 | $128,410 | $80,890 to $128,750 | 1,060 |
| South Carolina | $92,520 | $115,230 | $75,330 to $119,410 | 3,580 |
| South Dakota | $75,010 | $93,420 | $63,310 to $87,400 | 1,690 |
| Tennessee | $88,100 | $109,730 | $75,700 to $107,160 | 5,070 |
| Texas | $101,240 | $126,090 | $79,570 to $128,140 | 34,840 |
| Utah | $95,820 | $119,340 | $78,260 to $117,170 | 2,050 |
| Vermont | $86,020 | $107,140 | $77,180 to $102,810 | 560 |
| Virginia | $109,610 | $136,520 | $83,480 to $136,480 | 12,430 |
| Washington | $103,910 | $129,420 | $82,800 to $127,740 | 8,600 |
| West Virginia | $74,490 | $92,780 | $63,520 to $94,320 | 1,510 |
| Wisconsin | $83,650 | $104,190 | $67,150 to $102,180 | 8,470 |
| Wyoming | $75,220 | $93,690 | $63,100 to $92,630 | 610 |
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 15-1244 (Network and Computer Systems Administrators). 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 15-1244.00, 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 $123,470 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