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Pay · 29-2072

Medical Records Specialists earn $51,140 a year at the midpoint

From about $37,000 at the low end to $81,150 at the top, with $51,140 in the middle — the 2025 survey, published as reported.

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$51,140median a year · United States
$24.59an hour $56,790average 194,720people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$43,49025th $51,140median $64,82075th
$37,00010th percentile $81,15090th percentile
$43,490a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$72,040best-paying state · District of Columbia
$41,500lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+41%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $72,040 in District of Columbia and $41,500 in Mississippi — a gap of $30,540 a year.

Medical records specialist earnings, from starting pay to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Related work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Medical Records Specialists$51,140
Medical Dosimetrists$147,470+$96,330 Diagnostic medical sonographers$96,590+$45,450 Radiologic technologists$80,110+$28,970 Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses$64,400+$13,260 Paramedics$60,600+$9,460 Veterinary technologists and technicians$47,380−$3,760

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of job.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Number 499 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 37% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 497 Locksmiths and Safe Repairers $51,320
  2. 498 Private Detectives and Investigators $51,220
  3. 499 Medical Records Specialists $51,140
  4. 500 Animal Breeders $51,130
  5. 501 Proofreaders and Copy Markers $51,120

Medical records specialist pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$51,147a year

Medical records specialist wages across the states

The 44 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.50 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Washington $62,270 $45,500 $45,500 — $98,130 5,010
California $61,810 $43,800 $43,800 — $102,470 18,700
New York $61,720 $40,730 $40,730 — $101,940 9,080
Minnesota $61,530 $48,120 $48,120 — $83,020 3,150
Alaska $61,090 $46,390 $46,390 — $90,530 1,070
Connecticut $60,940 $40,490 $40,490 — $88,900 1,120
Massachusetts $60,350 $43,960 $43,960 — $81,620 3,500
Wisconsin $60,280 $46,750 $46,750 — $79,720 2,870
Colorado $59,020 $45,280 $45,280 — $82,980 1,780
Oregon $59,000 $44,260 $44,260 — $81,120 2,560
New Mexico $57,470 $36,600 $36,600 — $76,460 1,400
Illinois $56,440 $38,890 $38,890 — $77,520 5,740
South Carolina $54,280 $37,240 $37,240 — $71,280 2,750
Maryland $54,220 $35,400 $35,400 — $82,090 2,440
Idaho $53,460 $39,930 $39,930 — $77,840 1,490
Oklahoma $53,460 $36,610 $36,610 — $74,710 2,480
Virginia $53,290 $37,630 $37,630 — $78,680 4,630
Utah $52,870 $35,720 $35,720 — $82,640 1,910
Maine $52,090 $42,210 $42,210 — $76,660 1,000
Nebraska $51,670 $38,620 $38,620 — $74,990 1,640
South Dakota $51,610 $36,920 $36,920 — $76,950 900
Georgia $51,550 $36,260 $36,260 — $81,580 5,930
Ohio $50,990 $38,060 $38,060 — $79,290 7,440
Missouri $50,750 $38,880 $38,880 — $77,010 3,890
Iowa $50,640 $38,910 $38,910 — $66,390 2,250
Nevada $50,300 $36,990 $36,990 — $81,140 2,350
New Jersey $50,240 $33,280 $33,280 — $83,650 4,450
Montana $50,190 $40,460 $40,460 — $64,540 820
North Carolina $49,620 $36,840 $36,840 — $79,670 6,760
New Hampshire $49,210 $39,120 $39,120 — $68,980 930
Texas $48,860 $34,440 $34,440 — $78,390 17,210
Tennessee $48,780 $37,320 $37,320 — $79,960 4,440
Kentucky $48,410 $36,290 $36,290 — $74,520 4,210
Kansas $48,160 $36,680 $36,680 — $77,910 2,030
Michigan $48,120 $37,180 $37,180 — $77,080 4,890
Indiana $47,670 $38,270 $38,270 — $79,270 5,860
Arizona $47,630 $36,530 $36,530 — $75,430 3,750
West Virginia $47,360 $31,610 $31,610 — $75,000 1,260
Pennsylvania $46,840 $37,490 $37,490 — $77,880 6,970
Florida $45,760 $36,330 $36,330 — $76,850 21,490
Louisiana $44,610 $32,900 $32,900 — $77,080 2,600
Alabama $43,810 $30,250 $30,250 — $64,730 2,330
Arkansas $41,740 $33,920 $33,920 — $65,090 1,920
Mississippi $41,500 $31,010 $31,010 — $61,580 2,310

A resume for medical records specialists

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Epic SystemsMEDITECH softwareeClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical procedure coding softwareMedical condition coding softwareHenry Schein DentrixMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft Office software
  • Protected the security of medical records to ensure that confidentiality is maintained.
  • Reviewed records for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with regulations.
  • Scanned patients' health records into electronic formats.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Questions people often ask

What is a medical records specialist’s yearly income?

A medical records specialist makes a median of $51,140 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $43,490 and $64,820.

What is a medical records specialist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $24.59 an hour; the average is $56,790 a year.

What is the starting pay for a medical records specialist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $43,490 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $37,000.

Which state pays medical records specialists the most?

District of Columbia, with a median of $72,040 a year.

How many people work as medical records specialists?

About 194,720 in the United States — number 499 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $280 of what medical records specialists earn — $51,140 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations