Receptionists and Information Clerks Average Salary in California
$46,100 average · $46,100 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 43-4171What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Receptionists and Information Clerks in California, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Industry placement creates most of the variation — administrative staff in finance, legal, and tech out-earn those in retail or hospitality substantially. Specialized variants (medical, legal, executive support) pay above general roles. Software fluency has become the implicit credential: workers who run the systems, rather than just use them, hold the better-paid and more durable positions.
How much do Receptionists and Information Clerks make in California?
The average receptionists and information clerks salary in California is $46,100 per year. That works out to about $22.16 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 82,470 receptionists and information clerks jobs in California.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $46,100. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $46,100; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $46,100 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Office and Administrative Support Careers Are Structured
Office and administrative support is the largest occupational group in the country and the one most visibly reshaped by software: roles built on routine document and data handling have shrunk for two decades, while roles requiring coordination and judgment have held. The trend data behind this page matters as much as the current wage.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how receptionists and information clerks pay is distributed in California specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Industry placement creates most of the variation — administrative staff in finance, legal, and tech out-earn those in retail or hospitality substantially. Specialized variants (medical, legal, executive support) pay above general roles. Software fluency has become the implicit credential: workers who run the systems, rather than just use them, hold the better-paid and more durable positions.
Entry typically requires a high-school diploma and office skills, making this a major on-ramp occupation. The strategic question is direction of consolidation: administrative experience plus accumulated domain knowledge converts well into operations, HR, bookkeeping, and coordination roles — paths that lead out of the most automation-exposed work and up the wage distribution.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Receptionists and Information Clerks Do?
Receptionists and Information Clerks positions belong to the office and administrative support field. Office and administrative support is the largest occupational group in the country and the one most visibly reshaped by software: roles built on routine document and data handling have shrunk for two decades, while roles requiring coordination and judgment have held. The trend data behind this page matters as much as the current wage.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 43-4171
Receptionists and Information Clerks pay in California
In California, receptionists and information clerks report a median of $46,100 (about $22.16/hour) across roughly 82,470 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $46,100 at the 10th percentile to $46,100 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons California wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in California
Prices in California run 11% above the national average (RPP 110.7). So a nominal salary of $46,100 has the buying power of about $41,637 in national terms.
California vs. United States for Receptionists and Information Clerks
The median receptionists and information clerks salary in California is $46,100, which is +16.8% above the national median of $39,460 (mean pay is +17.0% above the U.S. mean of $39,390). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, California ranks #2 by median wage for this occupation (top tier). California accounts for about 1.7% of U.S. receptionists and information clerks employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Receptionists and Information Clerks in California of $46,100 falls in the Stably paid band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~15% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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AI Replacement Risk Analysis
Forward-looking analysis of automation and AI impact
- Knowledge-based work - moderate automation risk
- Routine administrative tasks
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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Receptionists and Information Clerks
| $42,569 | $41,158 | $20 | 506,790 | |
| $41,520 | $39,510 | $20 | 394,100 | |
| $41,438 | $40,050 | $20 | 71,260 | |
| $40,650 | $38,610 | $20 | 206,840 | |
| $34,855 | $34,625 | $17 | 193,680 |
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