---
title: "Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk"
description: "Compile and record employee time and payroll data. May compute employees' time worked, production, and commission. May compute and post wages and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/payroll-and-timekeeping-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-3051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-3051.00

Compile and record employee time and payroll data. May compute employees' time worked, production, and commission. May compute and post wages and deductions, or prepare paychecks.

Also advertised as: Payroll Assistant; Payroll Clerk; Payroll Coordinator; Payroll Representative; Payroll Specialist; Payroll Technician; Personnel Assistant; Personnel Technician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $58,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $28.01/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,500 to $81,350, with the middle half between $47,990 and $69,600
- **Total US employment:** 153,140
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -16.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 13,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 7/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 153,140 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,500 |
| 25th | $47,990 |
| 50th (median) | $58,260 |
| 75th | $69,600 |
| 90th | $81,350 |
| Mean (average) | $59,630 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $74,670 | $67,943 | 270 |
| CA | $65,340 | $59,014 | 20,590 |
| WA | $64,560 | $60,329 | 3,560 |
| CO | $64,140 | $62,240 | 2,580 |
| MA | $63,670 | $60,204 | 3,280 |
| NH | $63,090 | $60,567 | 800 |
| AK | $62,210 | $60,776 | 360 |
| CT | $62,200 | $60,033 | 1,540 |
| HI | $62,070 | $56,452 | 700 |
| IL | $61,390 | $61,416 | 5,580 |
| MN | $61,320 | $62,177 | 2,790 |
| NY | $61,040 | $56,560 | 8,400 |
| OR | $60,980 | $58,997 | 2,890 |
| NJ | $60,750 | $55,834 | 4,290 |
| ND | $60,600 | $68,121 | 300 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/payroll-and-timekeeping-clerk/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/payroll-and-timekeeping-clerk.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 161,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 134,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 27,000 jobs, or -16.7%. Declining: -16.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 13,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 31.8% |
| Some College Courses | 30.4% |
| High School Diploma | 20.6% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 17.3% |

## What the work involves

- Keep track of leave time, such as vacation, personal, and sick leave, for employees.
- Verify attendance, hours worked, and pay adjustments, and post information onto designated records.
- Record employee information, such as exemptions, transfers, and resignations, to maintain and update payroll records.
- Issue and record adjustments to pay related to previous errors or retroactive increases.
- Review time sheets, work charts, wage computation, and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies.
- Compile employee time, production, and payroll data from time sheets and other records.
- Conduct verifications of employment.
- Compute wages and deductions, and enter data into computers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Administrative — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematical Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 7.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.32 |
| S — Social | 1.91 |
| R — Realistic | 1.85 |
| I — Investigative | 1.05 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 82.7 |
| ISFJ | 78.4 |
| ESFJ | 77.3 |
| ISTJ | 76.7 |
| ENTJ | 57.5 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISFJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Human Resources Assistant, Except Payroll and Timekeeping](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-assistant) — median $50,610
- [Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bookkeeping-accounting-and-auditing-clerk) — median $50,670
- [First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-office-and-administrative-support-workers) — median $69,500
- [Billing and Posting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/billing-and-posting-clerk) — median $48,500
- [Office Clerk, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-clerk-general) — median $45,010
- [Eligibility Interviewer, Government Programs](https://nuecareer.com/careers/eligibility-interviewer-government-programs) — median $54,210
- [Administrative Services Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-services-manager) — median $114,130
- [Secretary and Administrative Assistant, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive](https://nuecareer.com/careers/secretary-and-administrative-assistant) — median $47,540
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080
- [File Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/file-clerk) — median $43,600

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/payroll-and-timekeeping-clerk