Receptionists and Information Clerks
What the pay figures show
- The District of Columbia pays this job the most, $49,060. It still pays the most after tax. What it does not do is stay ahead once you count what living there costs. Level that out and North Dakota wins, at $38,322. Same work. A wage that goes further.
- For receptionists and information clerks, the District of Columbia leads both nominally at $49,060 and after tax — state income tax differentials are not large enough here to disturb the ordering. Regional price parity is: deflating take-home by each state's price level puts North Dakota first at $38,322. The adjustment that matters for this occupation is therefore cost of living rather than tax, which is the opposite of the assumption most relocation comparisons start from.
Compare this career across states
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Pay by state · May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
National median
$38,010
People doing it
910,180
Highest paid
$49,060
DC
Best off, really
$38,322
ND, after tax and prices
Lowest tenth
$28,760
Highest tenth
$49,950
Lowest, really
$29,857
MS
States with data
51
National average
$39,460
mean, not median
Prices where it goes furthest
88.57%
ND, against a national 100
Where this job actually pays best
- Pay for this job is fairly steady around the country. Count tax and local prices and the states bunch closer still, from $29,857 to $38,322. For work like this, where you live changes your life more than it changes your pay.
- 910,180 people do this job across the country, and the middle one earns $38,010. Common work, though not one of the giants.
- No gaps here — all 51 jurisdictions publish a number for this job, which sits at $38,010 in the middle.
- Geographic dispersion in receptionists and information clerks is moderate by national standards. Tax and price adjustment compress the distribution further, to a real range of $29,857 through $38,322. Where nominal spread is this contained, relocation decisions in the occupation turn on non-wage factors, because the wage differential does not survive the adjustments in a form large enough to drive them.
- National employment in receptionists and information clerks is 910,180 — a substantial occupation, though an order of magnitude below the largest. Regional differentials here move real aggregate sums without dominating any single state's wage bill.
- 51 jurisdictions report receptionists and information clerks, giving full coverage. The extremes quoted above are therefore the true reported maximum and minimum.
Pay band: Receptionists and Information Clerks
The national median for this job
50thpercentile, roughly
| Lowest tenth earn under | $28,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,010 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,950 |
| This salary | $38,010 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
Where these numbers come from
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, time-series bulk download (oe.data.0.Current) | as of 2025-05-01 |
|---|
Steps in Receptionists and Information Clerks
The national median for this job
$38,010around the 50th percentile
| Lowest tenth | $28,760 |
|---|---|
| Middle | $38,010 |
| Top tenth | $49,950 |
The five points BLS publishes. Nothing between them is invented.
Receptionists and Information Clerks, state by state
The national median for this job
51states publish pay for this job
| Lowest | Mississippi · $31,160 |
|---|---|
| Highest | District of Columbia · $49,060 |
| Spread | $17,900 |
One dot per state that publishes this job. A missing state means suppressed data, not zero pay.
Best paid, and best off
The national median for this job
| Texas pays | $35,210 |
|---|---|
| Worth, after local prices | $36,234 |
Median pay against the same pay once BEA price parities are applied.
Every state, three ways
Sorted by what the money is actually worth. "Kept" is take-home for a single filer after federal, FICA and state income tax. "Really worth" divides that by the state's own price level, so a dollar in each row buys the same thing. Tap a state to put your own salary into it. States BLS does not publish for this job are absent — that means no published figure, not no work.
| State | Median pay | Kept after tax | Really worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| ND | $39,530 | $33,942 | $38,322 |
| AK | $44,720 | $38,113 | $37,470 |
| SD | $38,280 | $32,938 | $37,389 |
| WI | $41,150 | $34,069 | $36,595 |
| DC | $49,060 | $39,822 | $35,939 |
| ME | $42,440 | $34,730 | $35,768 |
| WY | $37,480 | $32,295 | $35,549 |
| IA | $37,330 | $31,368 | $35,337 |
| WA | $44,710 | $38,104 | $35,099 |
| NE | $37,860 | $31,581 | $34,944 |
| RI | $42,620 | $35,247 | $34,756 |
| MT | $37,360 | $31,200 | $34,572 |
| CO | $42,010 | $34,795 | $34,321 |
| AR | $34,840 | $29,343 | $33,920 |
| ID | $36,810 | $30,659 | $33,535 |
| OH | $35,920 | $30,770 | $33,514 |
| VT | $38,370 | $31,981 | $33,095 |
| NM | $35,140 | $29,871 | $33,049 |
| NV | $37,050 | $31,950 | $32,945 |
| MO | $35,740 | $30,155 | $32,862 |
| MI | $37,470 | $30,945 | $32,856 |
| MA | $43,870 | $35,556 | $32,850 |
| IN | $36,160 | $30,197 | $32,758 |
| OK | $34,560 | $28,894 | $32,728 |
| KS | $36,050 | $29,423 | $32,705 |
| TN | $34,910 | $30,230 | $32,676 |
| CA | $44,100 | $36,715 | $32,612 |
| NY | $43,080 | $35,065 | $32,581 |
| SC | $35,510 | $30,304 | $32,523 |
| AZ | $38,730 | $32,734 | $32,376 |
| CT | $40,630 | $33,428 | $32,239 |
| NJ | $41,650 | $34,892 | $32,046 |
| UT | $36,960 | $30,233 | $31,823 |
| MN | $37,510 | $31,131 | $31,632 |
| NC | $35,440 | $29,751 | $31,603 |
| LA | $32,750 | $27,898 | $31,579 |
| PA | $36,810 | $30,627 | $31,412 |
| TX | $35,210 | $30,471 | $31,357 |
| NH | $38,160 | $32,842 | $31,175 |
| HI | $41,600 | $33,844 | $31,161 |
| GA | $36,100 | $29,984 | $31,007 |
| IL | $37,400 | $30,524 | $30,878 |
| FL | $36,810 | $31,757 | $30,697 |
| OR | $40,900 | $32,015 | $30,571 |
| KY | $32,940 | $27,612 | $30,521 |
| VA | $37,060 | $30,587 | $30,360 |
| MD | $38,100 | $31,347 | $30,152 |
| DE | $36,310 | $29,907 | $30,132 |
| WV | $31,920 | $27,040 | $30,120 |
| AL | $32,590 | $26,996 | $30,005 |
| MS | $31,160 | $26,063 | $29,857 |
Sources and assumptions
- These are middle-of-the-range figures for this job, not what a new starter is offered. Half the people doing this job earn under $38,010 nationally, half over. Your own experience and employer will move you well away from that midpoint in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, nothing paid into a pension before tax — that is the household behind every take-home figure for this job. It is the simplest case on purpose, so the states can be compared against each other rather than against each other's family circumstances. City income taxes are not counted. On that household, the District of Columbia keeps the most at $39,822.
- The price adjustment for this job uses a statewide figure, and states are not uniform. A city and a rural county in the same state can differ more from each other than two states do, so treat the real-terms comparison as a direction rather than a precise answer — Mississippi anchors the bottom at $29,857. The wage data and the price data also come from different years, because that is how each is published.
- All wage figures for receptionists and information clerks are medians rather than entry or offer rates; the national median is $38,010. Within-state dispersion typically exceeds between-state dispersion in this data, so an individual's expected wage is determined more by experience, sector and employer than by the state comparisons presented here.
- The household modeled for receptionists and information clerks is a single filer, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax contributions. Holding the household constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful; it also means the absolute figures overstate liability for most real filers. On that basis the District of Columbia retains the most, $39,822. Municipal and school-district income taxes are not included in any state.
- Real-terms figures for receptionists and information clerks deflate take-home by a statewide regional price parity, which conceals substantial intra-state variation — metropolitan and non-metropolitan price levels within one state frequently differ by more than two states differ from each other. The wage and price series also carry different reference periods, as each is published on its own schedule, so the adjustment is directionally sound rather than precisely dated.