Receptionists and Information Clerks

Receptionists and Information Clerks professionals earn a national median of $38,010 per year according to BLS OEWS May 2025 data, positioned in the Office and Administrative Support Occupations occupational family under SOC code 43-4171. Approximately 910,180 Americans are currently employed in this role nationwide. The full percentile range stretches from $28,760 at the 10th percentile to $49,950 at the 90th, a spread that reflects differences in experience, specialization, employer type, and geographic market.

Long-term employment projections for Receptionists and Information Clerks are not published separately in the BLS dataset, typically because the occupation is grouped with a larger parent category or its total workforce falls below the agency's reporting threshold. Typical entry-level preparation is High school diploma or equivalent. The occupation carries a WageDex workplace-safety grade of A, derived from BLS CFOI fatality rates and SOII injury rates.

Geographic wage variation is substantial: District of Columbia currently leads all states at $49,060 for this occupation, while lower-cost regions pay correspondingly less. These gaps typically reflect cost-of-living differences, industry concentration (for example, finance hubs or tech clusters), and the relative supply of qualified workers in each labor market. Before treating this median as a personal benchmark, compare it against percentile position in your own metro, factor in employer-provided benefits that BLS wage surveys exclude, and remember that career-card data captures the occupation as it existed on the May 2025 reference date, not where it will be when you negotiate your next offer.