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Pay · 43-2011

Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service earn $38,630 a year at the midpoint

Starting pay is close to the middle here: the 25th percentile is $34,820 against a median of $38,630, so the first years are not a long climb.

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$38,630median a year · United States
$18.57an hour $42,300average 34,280people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$34,82025th $38,630median $46,53075th
$29,99010th percentile $59,47090th percentile
$34,820a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$59,860best-paying state · Hawaii
$30,520lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+55%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.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $34,820, is within 10% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $59,860 in Hawaii and $30,520 in Mississippi — a gap of $29,340 a year.

Switchboard operator earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

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Switchboard operator 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.

$38,626a year

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of work.

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

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Switchboard operator wages, state by state

The 37 states where the most people do this work, of 46 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.96 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Hawaii $59,860 $42,720 $42,720 — $67,270 410
District of Columbia $54,700 $47,140 $47,140 — $63,420 230
California $48,840 $37,380 $37,380 — $79,260 6,680
Washington $47,800 $36,850 $36,850 — $60,590 430
Minnesota $47,430 $39,890 $39,890 — $57,840 200
New York $45,330 $36,970 $36,970 — $72,500 1,760
Massachusetts $43,790 $36,680 $36,680 — $57,980 830
Colorado $43,720 $35,490 $35,490 — $46,920 320
Illinois $42,660 $34,450 $34,450 — $55,180 1,240
New Jersey $40,430 $35,780 $35,780 — $51,890 660
Arizona $40,380 $35,060 $35,060 — $50,200 380
Wisconsin $40,030 $36,040 $36,040 — $57,420 550
Georgia $39,490 $30,880 $30,880 — $46,390 780
Kansas $38,760 $30,940 $30,940 — $46,130 180
North Carolina $38,520 $30,510 $30,510 — $46,340 690
Iowa $38,400 $30,060 $30,060 — $45,570 210
Connecticut $38,380 $34,370 $34,370 — $55,170 180
Nevada $38,070 $31,600 $31,600 — $48,400 650
New Mexico $37,710 $31,270 $31,270 — $50,590 220
Kentucky $37,590 $30,550 $30,550 — $44,390 370
Nebraska $37,570 $32,370 $32,370 — $46,560 180
Michigan $37,390 $31,220 $31,220 — $47,200 370
Missouri $37,130 $32,380 $32,380 — $45,570 640
Maryland $37,080 $31,990 $31,990 — $47,790 650
Pennsylvania $36,890 $22,270 $22,270 — $46,590 1,350
Indiana $36,860 $28,220 $28,220 — $56,540 380
Virginia $36,730 $31,200 $31,200 — $45,320 610
Ohio $36,350 $29,800 $29,800 — $44,100 990
Delaware $35,980 $31,200 $31,200 — $46,720 180
Tennessee $35,550 $27,020 $27,020 — $46,700 680
Florida $35,410 $29,410 $29,410 — $43,360 3,090
Arkansas $35,290 $29,360 $29,360 — $42,870 260
Oklahoma $35,280 $29,100 $29,100 — $42,470 480
South Carolina $34,010 $29,940 $29,940 — $43,730 480
Texas $33,620 $24,140 $24,140 — $44,100 3,640
Alabama $32,210 $27,640 $27,640 — $38,260 680
Mississippi $30,520 $23,170 $23,170 — $39,360 200

No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Number 712 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 10% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 710 Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders $38,670
  2. 711 Parts Salespersons $38,630
  3. 712 Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service $38,630
  4. 713 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers $38,300
  5. 714 Orderlies $38,290

Resumes for switchboard operators, including answering service

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Microsoft Office softwareMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft AccessIBM NotesMicrosoft Word
  • Operated communication systems, such as telephone, switchboard, intercom, two-way radio, or public address.
  • Answered incoming calls, greeting callers, providing information, transferring calls or taking messages as necessary.
  • Greeted visitors, log them in and out of the facility, assign them security badges, and contacted employee escorts.

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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 ask most

What is a switchboard operator’s yearly income?

A switchboard operator makes a median of $38,630 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $34,820 and $46,530.

What is a switchboard operator’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $18.57 an hour; the average is $42,300 a year.

What is the starting pay for a switchboard operator?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $34,820 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $29,990.

Which state pays switchboard operators, including answering service the most?

Hawaii, with a median of $59,860 a year.

How many people work as switchboard operators, including answering service?

About 34,280 in the United States — number 712 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $140 of what switchboard operators, including answering service earn — $38,630 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations