Financial Clerks: Salary Overview
Financial clerks do administrative work for a variety of businesses.
A financial clerk’s job description typically includes keeping and updating the company’s financial records, calculating bills and charges, carrying out financial transactions, and offering customer assistance.
Their exact duties vary depending on their specialty.
Brokerage clerks fulfill tasks related to stocks, bonds, commodities, and other kinds of investments.
Their duties typically include calculating transfer taxes, writing orders for stock purchases and sales, verifying stock transactions, accepting and delivering securities, distributing dividends, and recording daily transactions.
Billing and posting clerks generate bills based on purchase orders, sales tickets, and other records.
Loan interviewers interview applicants for a loan and prepare the documents that are issued at the closing of a loan.
Payroll and timekeeping clerks verify records of attendance and hours worked and compile payroll data.
Gaming cage workers are employed by gaming establishments and sell gambling chips and tokens to patrons.
Other financial clerks are new account clerks, procurement clerks, insurance claims and policy processing clerks, and credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual wage for financial clerks was $40,540 per year as of May 2019.
This means that half of the workers in this profession earned less than this amount and half earned more.
Salaries vary widely depending on the financial clerk’s field of expertise and the industry of employment but also depending upon the clerk’s experience and education.
The lowest 10 percent earned less than $27,730 per year while the highest 10 percent made more than $61,160.
Salaries Based on Job Description
According to BLS, in 2019 most financial clerks worked as billing and posting clerks, as insurance claims and policy processing clerks or as loan interviewers and clerks.
Salaries for financial clerks vary widely depending on their specialty and job description.
The highest average annual wage was reported by brokerage clerks while the lowest salaries were reported by gaming cage workers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for brokerage clerks was $52,750.
Payroll and timekeeping clerks earned, on average, $46,180 per year while procurement clerks earned $43,310 per year.
The average annual wage reported by insurance claims and policy processing clerks was $40,750 while loan interviewers and clerks earned $40,640, on average.
Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks made $40,100 on average, while billing and posting clerks made $38,740.
New accounts clerks earned, on average, $36,550 per year while gaming cage workers made $28,040.
Financial Clerk Salary by Industry
Financial clerks held about 1.4 million jobs in the United States in 2018, most of them working in the industry of insurance carriers and related activities, in credit intermediation and related activities, and in the healthcare and social assistance field.
The average annual wage for financial clerks who worked for insurance carriers was $41,100 while those who worked for companies that provide professional, scientific, and technical services made, on average, $40,680 per year.
Financial clerks who worked in the field of credit intermediation made, on average, $39,760 per year while those employed by companies that provide administrative and support services earned $39,640 a year, on average.
The average annual wage for financial clerks in the field of healthcare and social assistance was $38,640.
Higher-than-average salaries are typically earned by financial clerks who work for architectural and engineering companies, for outpatient care services, in telecommunications and computer system design.
The average annual wage reported by financial clerks employed in the field of architectural, engineering, and related services was $60,240 while those who worked for outpatient care centers made $58,000 a year, on average.
Financial clerks employed by telecommunications companies reported an average annual wage of $56,610 and those who worked for computer system design businesses made $56,540 a year, on average.
* Based on information from the May 2021 salary report from the BLS. The figures represent accumulated data for all states of employment for Financial Clerks. BLS data represents averages and medians for workers at all levels of education and experience. This data doesn't represent starting salaries.
* Employment conditions in your area may vary.