Will AI replace payroll and timekeeping clerks?

Unlikely, though parts of the work are changing. About 37m of an 8-hour shift goes to tasks touched by AI working on its own. The other 7h 23m (92%) stays with people. Separately, BLS expects about 15.9% fewer of these jobs by 2035 (all jobs: +3.5%).

AI shows up regularly in 1 of 21 tasks, about 37m of a typical shift. The biggest ones:

• Provide information to employees and managers on payroll matters, tax issues, benefit plans, and collective agreement provisions. (37m a shift, AI mostly does it alone)

Not in workplaces like this one, based on a 2026 review of robot deployments. 1 more task has only been done in factory setups built around the machine, so it stays with people here.

7h 23m of a typical shift, or 92%, goes to tasks with no AI or robot evidence yet. No AI usage or robot deployment has shown up for these so far. The biggest:

• Verify attendance, hours worked, and pay adjustments, and post information onto designated records. (56m a shift)
• Compute wages and deductions, and enter data into computers. (50m a shift)
• Process and issue employee paychecks and statements of earnings and deductions. (44m a shift)
• Review time sheets, work charts, wage computation, and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies. (44m a shift)
• Prepare and balance period-end reports, and reconcile issued payrolls to bank statements. (31m a shift)

Much of it comes down to where and how the work happens. In-person, hands-on and high-stakes work is where AI and robots have made the least headway so far. In the official O*NET survey of people in this job:

• 83% talk face to face with others every day

We track 1 sourced company move that affects this job. Most recent:

• Oct 13, 2026: Workday gives its Payroll Agent autopilot checks before each run (Announced)

On Indeed, job postings in the Accounting sector are at 105% of their February 2020 level (all U.S. postings: 104%), down 5.9% from a year earlier, as of Oct 9, 2026. BLS separately expects about 11,000 openings a year in this job through 2035. Across all U.S. postings, 7.3% now mention AI skills. Sector postings cover more than this one job and move for many reasons besides AI.

The median pay is about $58,260 a year ($28.01 an hour), 14% above the median for all U.S. jobs ($50,980). Most people in this job earn between $39,500 and $81,350 a year; that range covers the middle 80%. Pay figures are from BLS, May 2025, and vary a lot by state and employer. Pick a state to compare:

BLS projects a decline of 15.9% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3.5% growth for all jobs. That's about 134,000 jobs in 2035. Even so, it expects about 11,000 openings a year, mostly from people retiring or changing careers. These projections don't single out AI as a cause.

About 153,000 people in the U.S., roughly 0.10% of all workers (BLS, May 2025). That makes it the 212th largest of the 796 jobs on this site. BLS expects about 134,000 in 2035.

The most common requirement is a bachelor's degree: about 32% of people in the job said so in the official O*NET survey. O*NET rates the job at level 3 of 5 for preparation, which usually means: vocational school or associate's degree. Requirements vary by state and employer, especially for licensed work.

These come from the job's official skill ratings and from the tasks that AI and robots touch least today. Building them keeps you strong in the parts of the work that still need a person:

• Skills that matter more here than in most jobs: Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Service Orientation
• Get strong at the parts of the job that stay with people (listed above), which take 7h 23m of a typical shift
• Tools employers list: Workday software, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Excel
• Learn to use AI well on the tasks where it already shows up in this job (listed above)

These use similar skills. Matches come from 109 official ratings of skills, knowledge and work activities, and each needs the same or less preparation unless the official list relates the jobs directly:

• Billing and Posting Clerks (4h 19m touched, $49k median pay)
• Correspondence Clerks (3h 57m touched, $47k median pay)
• Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks (1h 58m touched, $51k median pay)
• General Office Clerks (4h 30m touched, $45k median pay)
• Court, Municipal, and License Clerks (1h 28m touched, $49k median pay)

Each task carries its own evidence label. For this job: 1 observed in real AI use, 20 with no AI or robot evidence found. The minutes per task are estimates, not measured hours, and "no evidence" doesn't prove a task is safe.