What a translator costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 52,060 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
- $60,170
- Hourly wage
- $28.93
- Loaded per hour
- $36.03
- Middle half earns
- $46,530 to $80,830
- Jobs in the US
- 52,060
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A translator in the US is paid a median $60,170 a year, $28.93 an hour, across 52,060 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $74,940. Of its 8 core tasks, 6 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 5 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 8 core tasks O*NET lists for interpreters and translators, 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.
- 01Follow ethical codes that protect the confidentiality of information.
- 02Translate messages simultaneously or consecutively into specified languages, orally or by using hand signs, maintaining message content, context, and style as much as possible.Claude.ai: 61% did the task, 39% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 03Listen to speakers' statements to determine meanings and to prepare translations, using electronic listening systems as necessary.Claude.ai: 57% did the task, 43% helped · API: 81% did the task
- 04Compile terminology and information to be used in translations, including technical terms such as those for legal or medical material.Claude.ai: 69% did the task, 31% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 05Refer to reference materials, such as dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, and computerized terminology banks, as needed to ensure translation accuracy.
- 06Check translations of technical terms and terminology to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions.Claude.ai: 58% did the task, 42% helped · API: 92% did the task
- 07Identify and resolve conflicts related to the meanings of words, concepts, practices, or behaviors.Claude.ai: 14% did the task, 86% helped · API: 86% did the task
- 08Compile information on content and context of information to be translated and on intended audience.Claude.ai: 80% did the task, 20% helped · API: 100% did the task
6 of 8 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: 0.93% 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, $109,970; Hawaii the least, $42,270. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 4 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $46,130 | $57,450 | $35,860 to $61,050 | 310 |
| Alaska | Not published | · | · | 150 |
| Arizona | $50,150 | $62,460 | $37,980 to $64,600 | 2,070 |
| Arkansas | $52,490 | $65,380 | $44,220 to $67,290 | 220 |
| California | $70,770 | $88,140 | $56,230 to $102,010 | 5,560 |
| Colorado | $71,790 | $89,410 | $61,630 to $86,300 | 800 |
| Connecticut | $68,340 | $85,120 | $46,470 to $93,960 | 280 |
| Delaware | Not published | · | · | 110 |
| District of Columbia | $109,970 | $136,970 | $77,060 to $124,450 | 280 |
| Florida | $48,930 | $60,940 | $38,840 to $78,500 | 4,200 |
| Georgia | $57,880 | $72,090 | $46,470 to $82,510 | 1,600 |
| Hawaii | $42,270 | $52,650 | $39,810 to $64,400 | 60 |
| Idaho | $66,130 | $82,360 | $56,520 to $96,870 | 300 |
| Illinois | $55,290 | $68,860 | $42,760 to $69,010 | 1,510 |
| Indiana | $48,140 | $59,960 | $44,730 to $65,870 | 1,170 |
| Iowa | $48,150 | $59,970 | $40,450 to $53,620 | 560 |
| Kansas | $47,950 | $59,720 | $40,190 to $67,770 | 470 |
| Kentucky | $53,590 | $66,750 | $44,070 to $73,170 | 480 |
| Louisiana | $48,420 | $60,310 | $36,020 to $54,800 | 120 |
| Maine | $63,470 | $79,050 | $54,460 to $93,130 | 90 |
| Maryland | $88,550 | $110,290 | $63,270 to $102,750 | 1,150 |
| Massachusetts | $72,750 | $90,610 | $58,050 to $93,010 | 2,280 |
| Michigan | $45,310 | $56,430 | $35,990 to $69,830 | 940 |
| Minnesota | $66,410 | $82,710 | $63,010 to $78,520 | 1,030 |
| Mississippi | $57,130 | $71,160 | $35,940 to $76,670 | 80 |
| Missouri | $57,010 | $71,010 | $44,670 to $79,610 | 440 |
| Montana | $47,850 | $59,600 | $41,340 to $52,630 | 60 |
| Nebraska | $53,050 | $66,070 | $47,650 to $64,050 | 570 |
| Nevada | $50,370 | $62,740 | $39,890 to $55,830 | 320 |
| New Hampshire | $56,370 | $70,210 | $55,750 to $56,370 | 240 |
| New Jersey | $58,970 | $73,450 | $34,370 to $97,720 | 870 |
| New Mexico | $63,550 | $79,150 | $41,770 to $85,910 | 360 |
| New York | $84,090 | $104,730 | $56,010 to $107,800 | 3,240 |
| North Carolina | $50,030 | $62,310 | $41,580 to $69,070 | 1,780 |
| North Dakota | $48,190 | $60,020 | $47,270 to $56,570 | 130 |
| Ohio | $61,230 | $76,260 | $48,590 to $79,040 | 2,030 |
| Oklahoma | $48,980 | $61,000 | $40,410 to $61,350 | 320 |
| Oregon | $66,300 | $82,580 | $56,200 to $80,580 | 660 |
| Pennsylvania | $57,040 | $71,040 | $45,120 to $80,590 | 1,420 |
| Rhode Island | $82,320 | $102,530 | $58,240 to $134,270 | 200 |
| South Carolina | $50,860 | $63,350 | $44,400 to $61,040 | 520 |
| South Dakota | $53,140 | $66,190 | $47,040 to $65,210 | 230 |
| Tennessee | $51,080 | $63,620 | $39,080 to $64,770 | 710 |
| Texas | $47,510 | $59,170 | $38,010 to $62,900 | 6,780 |
| Utah | $65,770 | $81,920 | $50,090 to $79,970 | 850 |
| Vermont | $62,450 | $77,780 | $62,310 to $110,140 | 80 |
| Virginia | $63,030 | $78,500 | $47,500 to $86,920 | 1,630 |
| Washington | $61,750 | $76,910 | $49,680 to $82,990 | 1,250 |
| West Virginia | Not published | · | · | 120 |
| Wisconsin | $63,390 | $78,950 | $48,540 to $76,770 | 1,410 |
| Wyoming | Not published | · | · | · |
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 27-3091 (Interpreters and Translators). 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 27-3091.00, 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 $74,940 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