Guide
Receptionist salary: what receptionists earn and what one costs to hire
Direct answer
The median receptionist salary in the US is $38,010 a year, or $18.27 an hour, according to BLS data for May 2025. The lowest-paid 10% earn under $28,760 and the top 10% earn over $49,950. For an employer, a median-paid full-time receptionist costs about $49,800 a year once you add roughly 31% for benefits and payroll taxes, before recruiting, equipment, and coverage for breaks and time off.
Receptionist salary: the BLS numbers
BLS tracks this job under SOC 43-4171, "receptionists and information clerks." These are the people who greet visitors, answer phones, take messages, and give out information about the business. The OEWS page for the occupation reports national wages for May 2025, the latest published.
| Measure (May 2025, national) | Hourly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $13.83 | $28,760 |
| Median | $18.27 | $38,010 |
| Mean | $18.97 | $39,460 |
| 90th percentile | $24.01 | $49,950 |
About 910,200 people worked as receptionists and information clerks in May 2025. BLS annual figures assume a full-time year of 2,080 hours. Many receptionists work part time, so actual yearly earnings for some workers are lower than these figures.
What moves receptionist pay
- Setting. Medical, dental, legal, and corporate front desks often add scheduling, intake forms, or billing questions to the job, and more duties give you more to negotiate with.
- Extra duties. A receptionist who also handles insurance verification, basic bookkeeping, or office supply orders is doing more than one job.
- Location. Local wage levels and minimum wage laws shift the whole range.
BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry education, with short-term on-the-job training.
What a receptionist costs an employer
Salary isn't the whole cost. Employers also pay for health insurance, retirement contributions, overtime or bonuses, and legally required costs like Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation.
BLS measures 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 receptionists.
ECEC counts paid leave as a benefit, but the OEWS salary already includes paid vacation and holiday hours. To avoid double counting, we add only the other benefit costs: supplemental pay, insurance, retirement, and legally required benefits. For this group those were $8.74 an hour, about 31% of wages plus paid leave. That's the load used below.
Worked total-cost table
| Line | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Median salary | $38,010 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes (31%) | about $11,800 | Derived from BLS ECEC, June 2026 |
| Employment cost per year | about $49,800 | 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 system seat, scheduling tools |
| Ramp-up | 2 to 4 weeks at partial output | Assumption: learning your services, staff, and common questions |
| First-year total | about $51,000 to $57,000 | Employment cost plus the assumptions |
At the 10th percentile salary the same load gives about $37,700 a year. At the 90th percentile, about $65,400. The recruiting, software, and ramp-up lines are our estimates.
One more cost doesn't show up on any line: coverage. A full-time receptionist covers about 40 hours a week minus lunch, breaks, sick days, and vacation. Someone else answers the door and phone during those gaps, and that's often the owner.
Our companion guide, what an AI front desk costs vs hiring one, uses a third-party estimate of about $54,400 a year for a fully loaded receptionist. That figure starts from the same $38,010 median but uses a different benefits calculation. Either way, the cost lands around $50,000 to $55,000 a year.
Job outlook
BLS employment projections expect receptionist and information clerk jobs to decline 1.7% from 2025 to 2035. That's a modest drop, and BLS still projects about 105,100 openings a year, mostly from turnover. The Occupational Outlook Handbook has more on the work and training.
For job seekers, the in-person parts of the job are the hardest to automate. Wherever patients and clients still walk in, someone has to greet them.
What software and AI can take, and what needs a person
TeamShift's AI can answer live calls on your business line, day, night, and weekends. It says it's an AI assistant, answers from a brief you write (hours, services, service area, policies), takes messages and job details, and sends anything that books, quotes, or refunds to you to approve. It doesn't transfer calls, and a person still handles emotional or complex calls better. Our comparison of AI receptionists vs answering services covers the other options.
TeamShift also handles the front desk work that happens in writing. For many small businesses, the inbox is the busiest front desk they have. The Support worker sorts Gmail or Outlook, drafts replies, and prepares text-back replies to missed calls and texts. Anything that goes to a customer is drafted for your OK and sent only after you approve it. 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 (see pricing).
What needs a person:
- Hard calls. Handling an upset caller, a warm transfer, or a call that needs judgment in real time.
- Walk-ins. Greeting visitors, checking people in, signing for packages, and keeping the lobby safe.
- Tough moments. An upset customer at the counter or a patient who needs help with a form.
- Local knowledge. Knowing which staff member a regular customer wants and when to interrupt a meeting.
If most of your front desk traffic is email, routine calls, and missed calls, software can take a lot of it. If people walk in all day or callers need judgment and a warm handoff, you still need a receptionist, and software can take the routine calls, after-hours coverage, and written work off their plate. For a broader explanation, see what an AI front desk is.
Sources and method
Salary figures are national OEWS estimates for SOC 43-4171, 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 receptionist salary?
The BLS mean is $39,460 a year and the median is $38,010 (May 2025). The median is the better guide because a few high earners pull the mean up.
How much do receptionists make per hour?
The median is $18.27 an hour. The 10th percentile is $13.83 and the 90th is $24.01, per BLS for May 2025.
How much does it cost to hire a receptionist?
About $49,800 a year at the median salary once benefits and payroll taxes are added. With recruiting, equipment, and ramp-up, the first year runs about $51,000 to $57,000 by our estimates.
Do receptionists need a degree?
No. BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry education, with short-term on-the-job training.
Can AI replace a receptionist?
Not for walk-ins or calls that need judgment. AI can answer routine calls and take messages, and software can take email, missed-call follow-up drafts, and after-hours written questions. BLS projects a 1.7% decline in these jobs from 2025 to 2035, with about 105,100 openings a year.