Data Entry Specialist salary and cost of hiring in the US
A data entry specialist moves information into the right systems accurately and fast: forms, invoices, product data, CRM records and research lists.
BLS occupation 43-9021[1]; benefits share[2]. Checked 2026-10-16.
US salary range
| Range | 10th | Median | 90th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $31,200 | $41,340 | $58,790 |
Salary by state
| State | Median | 90th percentile | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $73,090 | 200 | |
| New Mexico | $53,410 | 300 | |
| North Dakota | $64,310 | 110 | |
| Maine | $58,340 | 140 | |
| Hawaii | $53,550 | 210 | |
| Massachusetts | $58,280 | 1,590 | |
| Washington | $63,790 | 1,360 | |
| Utah | $69,430 | 2,140 | |
| California | $61,520 | 14,520 | |
| Wyoming | $56,430 | 140 | |
| Rhode Island | $63,190 | 270 | |
| New York | $61,200 | 9,470 | |
| Minnesota | $71,820 | 1,360 | |
| Colorado | $61,070 | 1,190 | |
| Iowa | $57,920 | 1,180 | |
| New Hampshire | $54,990 | 790 | |
| Vermont | $54,040 | 290 | |
| Arizona | $54,900 | 3,420 | |
| Illinois | $59,920 | 5,910 | |
| Idaho | $59,460 | 540 | |
| New Jersey | $61,990 | 4,940 | |
| Montana | $51,140 | 300 | |
| Georgia (US state) | $58,480 | 3,410 | |
| Alaska | $68,550 | 160 | |
| Indiana | $55,040 | 2,370 | |
| Tennessee | $57,310 | 2,360 | |
| Ohio | $54,990 | 4,530 | |
| North Carolina | $52,620 | 3,330 | |
| Nebraska | $49,230 | 1,260 | |
| Nevada | $54,930 | 800 | |
| Maryland | $56,490 | 1,850 | |
| Virginia | $54,670 | 2,890 | |
| Florida | $51,250 | 7,650 | |
| Texas | $56,920 | 17,850 | |
| Pennsylvania | $51,710 | 5,270 | |
| Oklahoma | $51,620 | 1,290 | |
| Connecticut | $58,190 | 1,290 | |
| Kansas | $45,760 | 1,210 | |
| Wisconsin | $51,180 | 2,360 | |
| Michigan | $52,100 | 3,290 | |
| South Carolina | $51,890 | 1,490 | |
| Delaware | $56,100 | 410 | |
| Louisiana | $54,160 | 1,800 | |
| Kentucky | $50,910 | 2,020 | |
| West Virginia | $47,740 | 660 | |
| Alabama | $47,210 | 1,060 | |
| Mississippi | $48,870 | 530 | |
| South Dakota | $39,630 | 30 | |
| Arkansas | $49,950 | 1,000 |
Top-paying metro areas
Areas with at least 500 people in the job.
| Metro area | Median | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 720 | |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 1,410 | |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 1,460 | |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 1,580 | |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 5,900 | |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 760 | |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 970 | |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 920 | |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 1,130 | |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | 520 |
What the job involves
- Enter and clean records in spreadsheets, CRMs or ERPs
- Digitise documents and invoices
- De-duplicate and standardise data
- Build simple research lists from public sources
- Check other people's entries for errors
Tools
- Excel or Google Sheets
- a CRM
- Airtable
- OCR tools
- Zapier
How to test candidates
- A timed entry test with an accuracy score
- A cleaning task: normalise 200 messy addresses
- Basic formulas: VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, filters
Remote work
Fully asynchronous; the main requirement is clear written instructions and a quality check on the first batches.
Local or remote
We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for data entry specialists we answer within one business day whether we can help. Enter the monthly pay you have in mind to compare it with a local hire. The fee field shows our standard fee[3]; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool[4].
Questions
What is the average data entry specialist salary in the US?
The BLS median was $41,340 a year in May 2025 and the mean $43,310.
Which state pays data entry specialists the most?
District of Columbia, with a median of $55,170 a year.
Sources
- BLS OEWS May 2025, 43-9021: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes439021.htm
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, private industry, June 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
- Silkstaff pricing: https://silkstaff.com/#pricing
- Deel pricing, contractor management: https://www.deel.com/pricing/
How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Data checked 2026-10-16.