Guide
Office manager salary: what they earn and what one costs to hire
Direct answer
The median office manager salary in the US is about $69,500 a year, or $33.41 an hour, based on BLS data for May 2025. BLS counts office managers in its "first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers" category, where the 10th percentile earns $45,610 and the 90th earns $104,710. For an employer, a median-paid office manager costs about $91,000 a year after roughly 31% in benefits and payroll taxes, before recruiting and equipment.
Which BLS category covers office managers
There's no BLS occupation called "office manager." The closest match is SOC 43-1011, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers. It covers people who supervise and coordinate clerical and administrative staff, which describes most office managers at small and mid-sized businesses.
The fit isn't perfect. An office manager at a five-person firm may supervise nobody and do the books, the hiring paperwork, and the supply orders alone. A senior administrative services manager at a large company falls under a different, higher-paid management code. Use the numbers below as the best national benchmark, not an exact match for every posting.
Office manager salary: the BLS numbers
From the OEWS page for SOC 43-1011, national figures for May 2025, the latest published:
| Measure (May 2025, national) | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $21.93 | $45,610 |
| Median | $33.41 | $69,500 |
| Mean | $35.33 | $73,490 |
| 90th percentile | $50.34 | $104,710 |
About 1.44 million people worked in this category in May 2025. BLS annual figures assume 2,080 hours a year and cover wage and salary employees only.
What moves office manager pay
- Team size. Running a team of ten clerks pays more than running the front office alone.
- Industry. Medical, legal, and financial offices often add compliance and billing duties.
- Scope creep. Many small-business office managers also handle bookkeeping, HR paperwork, and vendor contracts. That work deserves pay toward the top of the range, and job seekers should say so in negotiations.
BLS projections list a high school diploma as the typical entry education, with less than five years of related experience.
What an office manager costs an employer
Beyond salary, employers pay for health insurance, retirement contributions, bonuses or overtime, and legally required costs such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation.
BLS reports these in its Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) survey. In June 2026, the latest data, benefits were 31.3% of total compensation for private-industry office and administrative support workers, the group that includes SOC 43-1011.
ECEC treats paid leave as a benefit, but the OEWS salary already pays for vacation and holidays. So we add only the other benefit costs: supplemental pay, insurance, retirement, and legally required benefits. Those were $8.74 an hour for this group, about 31% of wages plus paid leave. That's the load used below.
Worked total-cost table
| Line | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Median salary | $69,500 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes (31%) | about $21,500 | Derived from BLS ECEC, June 2026 |
| Employment cost per year | about $91,000 | Sum of the two lines above |
| Recruiting (one time) | $1,000 to $5,000 | Assumption: job ads, background check, interview hours |
| Software and equipment | $500 to $2,000 a year | Assumption: computer, phone, software seats |
| Ramp-up | 1 to 3 months at partial output | Assumption: learning your vendors, staff, and systems |
| First-year total | about $93,000 to $98,000 | Employment cost plus the assumptions |
At the 10th percentile salary the same load gives about $59,700 a year. At the 90th percentile it's about $137,200. The recruiting, software, and ramp-up lines are our estimates. Replace them with your own.
Job outlook
BLS employment projections show this category holding flat from 2025 to 2035, up 0.1%. BLS still expects about 127,400 openings a year as people retire or change jobs.
Flat isn't the same as shrinking. Offices still need someone who keeps things running. What's changing is the mix. Less time goes to data entry and filing, and more goes to coordinating people, vendors, and software.
What software and AI can take, and what needs a person
Much of an office manager's week is follow-through: tracking who owes what, chasing an invoice, scheduling interviews, collecting timesheets, sending onboarding documents, and checking that tasks actually got done. That kind of work is where software helps most.
TeamShift is a team of AI workers that handles this kind of follow-through for small businesses. The Operations lead writes a morning brief, keeps a task board, routes work, and checks that it got done. The People worker screens applicants, prepares interview scheduling, handles onboarding steps, collects timesheets, and tracks contractor compliance documents. The Finance worker drafts invoice follow-ups and sorts bills and receipts. Anything that sends to someone outside, commits the calendar, moves money, or deletes something is prepared for your OK and goes out only after you approve. Every step is recorded.
Pricing is by usage, at 3x the compute cost of the work, with a maximum quoted before a job starts and daily and monthly spend caps. There are no seats or subscriptions (see pricing).
What needs a person:
- Supervising people. Coaching, settling disputes, and handling performance problems.
- The physical office. Repairs, deliveries, supplies, security, and walk-in visitors.
- Hard phone calls. TeamShift's AI can answer routine calls and take messages, but upset callers and calls that need judgment still need a person.
- Judgment calls with consequences. Hiring decisions, policy exceptions, and vendor negotiations.
For a small business, software can take enough of the chasing that one office manager covers more ground, or that the owner can wait longer before hiring one. It doesn't replace the person who walks the floor. More on how this fits smaller teams is in our small business overview.
Sources and method
Salary figures are national OEWS estimates for SOC 43-1011, May 2025. The benefits load is derived from ECEC private-industry data for office and administrative support occupations, June 2026, excluding paid leave because the OEWS salary already covers paid hours. Projections are from the BLS Employment Projections program, 2025 to 2035. Recruiting, software, and ramp-up lines are labeled assumptions.
FAQ
What is the average office manager salary?
In the BLS category that covers office managers, the mean is $73,490 a year and the median is $69,500 (May 2025). The median is the better benchmark.
How much do office managers make per hour?
The median is $33.41 an hour. The 10th percentile is $21.93 and the 90th is $50.34, per BLS for May 2025.
Why doesn't BLS have an "office manager" job?
BLS sorts jobs by duties. Office managers who supervise clerical and administrative staff fall under SOC 43-1011, first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers. Higher-level administrative managers fall under a separate management code.
How much does it cost to hire an office manager?
About $91,000 a year at the median salary once benefits and payroll taxes are added. With recruiting, equipment, and ramp-up, the first year runs about $93,000 to $98,000 by our estimates.
Is office manager a good career?
BLS projects flat employment from 2025 to 2035 but about 127,400 openings a year. People who handle staff, vendors, and systems well tend to earn toward the top of the range.