How much does a receptionist cost? The full picture for 2026

You're doing the sums because something isn't working. The phone rings while you're with a client, the lunch hour goes to voicemail, and the person who used to answer it has left or never existed. A job advert would take ten minutes to write. The real question is what the hire will cost once the payslip is only one line of many.

So, how much does a receptionist cost? Roughly the hourly wage plus a quarter to a half again, depending on where you are, what you offer and how you cover the hours they're not at the desk. Below, we use the latest official pay data from the UK's Office for National Statistics and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, add the employer costs, and work through four examples with every assumption stated.

We sell an AI receptionist, so we have an interest in this question. We've kept that to one section near the end, and we've tried to write the rest so it's useful if you hire a person, which for many businesses is the right answer.

How much does a receptionist cost at a glance

These are the totals from the worked examples later in this guide. They're illustrations, not quotes. Your own figure depends on your pay rate, your benefits and how you handle cover.

Two things stand out. The wage is roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the true cost. And a part-time receptionist isn't much cheaper per hour, because recruitment and equipment don't shrink with the hours.

What receptionists earn: the official pay data

Start with pay, because everything else is calculated from it. Both countries publish detailed occupation-level figures, and both show the same pattern: receptionist pay sits close to the legal minimum, with a fairly narrow spread.

UK receptionist pay from the ONS

The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, occupation table 14 is the most detailed official source. The latest edition at the time of writing is the 2025 provisional release, which describes pay in April 2025. For receptionists (occupation code 4216), it shows:

A few things are worth knowing about these figures.

Most receptionists in the UK are part-time. More than half of the jobs in the table are part-time, and the median part-time receptionist is paid for about 21 hours a week. If you're picturing a single full-time hire, bear in mind that many small businesses fill this role with one or two part-timers.

Pay is bunched just above the minimum. In April 2025 the National Living Wage was £12.21, and that is exactly where the bottom 10% of receptionist hourly pay sits in the ONS table. The median was 74p above it, and even the top 10% started at only £16.00 an hour. Specialist roles pay a little more: medical secretaries (code 4211) had a median of £13.79, and personal assistants and other secretaries (code 4215) £15.96.

The minimum has moved since. HMRC's rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 set the National Living Wage at £12.71 an hour from April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over. With receptionist pay so close to the floor, it's reasonable to expect 2026 pay to have risen by roughly the same amount. That's why the UK examples below use £13.00 and £13.50 an hour rather than the 2025 medians.

US receptionist pay from the BLS

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for receptionists gives a median wage of $18.27 an hour in May 2025, or $38,010 a year, across 947,500 jobs. The median varies by industry:

So a dental practice or a law firm will typically pay more than a salon. Local pay matters even more than industry. State and city minimum wages vary widely, and pay in a large metro area can sit well above the national median. Check local job adverts for the role you have in mind before you settle on a figure.

The BLS also projects about 105,100 receptionist openings a year to 2035, all from people leaving the job, so expect steady turnover.

Employer on-costs in the UK

The wage is what the receptionist sees. These are the costs you pay on top, set by law.

Employer National Insurance

For 2026 to 2027, employers pay Class 1 National Insurance at 15% on each employee's earnings above the secondary threshold of £5,000 a year (£96 a week), according to the HMRC rates and thresholds page.

For a full-time receptionist on £26,325 a year, that's 15% of £21,325, or £3,198.75.

The same HMRC page sets the Employment Allowance at £10,500 for 2026 to 2027. If your business is eligible, the allowance reduces your total employer National Insurance bill by up to that amount each year. For a very small business whose only other employee is the owner, it can wipe out the National Insurance on a receptionist entirely. It's one allowance per business, not per employee, so a firm with several staff may already be using it up. Check eligibility with your accountant before counting on it.

Workplace pension under auto-enrolment

If a worker is aged between 22 and State Pension age and earns at least £10,000 a year, you must automatically enrol them into a workplace pension. The legal minimum is a total contribution of 8% of qualifying earnings, of which the employer pays at least 3%. Qualifying earnings are the band between £6,240 and £50,270 a year.

For the full-time example, that's 3% of (£26,325 − £6,240), or £602.55 a year. Many employers pay more than the minimum, and some calculate contributions on all earnings rather than the band, which pushes the figure up.

A part-timer earning under £10,000 doesn't have to be enrolled automatically, but they can ask to join. If they earn more than £520 a month, you then have to contribute too.

Holiday pay

Workers on a five-day week are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days. Part-timers get the same 5.6 weeks pro rata: someone working three days a week gets at least 16.8 days. You can count bank holidays as part of the 28 days.

Holiday pay isn't an extra on the payslip if you pay a salary or pay for 52 weeks; it's already inside the annual wage. The real cost is that for 5.6 weeks a year your receptionist isn't there, and you either pay someone else to cover or accept that the phone goes unanswered. We cost that cover separately below.

Statutory sick pay

HMRC's 2026 to 2027 rates put Statutory Sick Pay at £123.25 a week, or 80% of the employee's average weekly earnings if that's lower, paid by you for up to 28 weeks and not recoverable from HMRC. Many employers pay full wages for short absences instead.

How much sickness to plan for? The ONS article on sickness absence in the UK labour market, published in May 2026, found that 2.0% of working hours were lost to sickness in 2025, an average of 4.4 days per worker. That's an average across all jobs; your own experience will vary.

Employer on-costs in the US

US on-costs split into the taxes every employer pays and the benefits that are optional but common.

Payroll taxes you can't avoid

According to the IRS topic on Social Security and Medicare withholding, employers pay:

• Social Security: 6.2% of wages, up to a 2026 wage base of $184,500. A receptionist will be well under that.
• Medicare: 1.45% of all wages, with no cap.

Then there's unemployment insurance. Federal unemployment tax (FUTA) is 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, but employers who pay their state unemployment tax on time usually get a credit of up to 5.4%, leaving a net rate of 0.6%, or $42 per employee per year. State unemployment tax (SUTA) rates and wage bases vary by state and by your claims history, so ask your payroll provider for your rate. Most states also require workers' compensation insurance; for clerical staff it is usually one of the cheaper classes, but again the rate depends on your state and carrier.

For a receptionist on the national median of $38,002, Social Security and Medicare alone come to $2,907.12 a year.

Benefits: the biggest variable

There's no federal requirement to give paid vacation. The Department of Labor is clear that the Fair Labor Standards Act doesn't require payment for time not worked. Some states and cities do require paid sick leave, so check your local rules. In practice, most employers offer some paid time off to full-time staff to be able to hire at all.

Health insurance is where the cost really moves. The KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found that the average annual premium for single coverage was $9,325 in 2025, of which workers paid $1,440 on average. That leaves the employer paying about $7,885 a year for a single employee who takes up the cover. The same survey found that 59% of firms with 10 to 199 workers offered health benefits; firms with fewer than 10 employees weren't included.

How the BLS measures the total

For a sanity check against the line-by-line approach, the BLS publishes average employer costs per hour worked. Its Employer Costs for Employee Compensation table for occupational groups for June 2026 shows that, for office and administrative support occupations in private industry:

So every $1 of wages came with about 46 cents of benefits and taxes on average. That's across all office jobs, many better paid and at larger employers, so treat it as a rough loading. Our AI receptionist cost guide uses the all-occupations version of this figure; this guide builds the cost up item by item instead.

The costs that aren't on the payslip

Cover for holidays, sickness and lunch

A receptionist is one person in one place for a set number of hours. Every hour they aren't there is an hour you have to cover or leave.

• Holidays. In the UK that's at least 5.6 weeks a year for a full-timer. In the US it's whatever you offer; two weeks plus public holidays is a common pattern for small employers, though not a rule.
• Sickness. Roughly 4 to 5 days a year on the ONS average, often at no notice.
• Breaks. A full-time receptionist takes a lunch break, and lunchtime is often when customers call, because it's their break too.
• Training and appointments. Hours spent away from the desk that you still pay for.

Your options are an agency temp, a colleague stepping in, the owner answering, or voicemail. Temps cost more per hour than the person they cover, because the agency adds its margin. Voicemail costs the calls you miss, which our guide on missed calls and lost revenue helps you put a number on.

In the worked examples we've assumed an agency temp at £20 an hour in the UK and $28 an hour in the US. Those are assumptions for illustration, not published rates. Get a quote from a local agency for your own figure.

Recruitment

Hiring has a cost even when nothing goes wrong. You'll typically spend money on job adverts, and time writing the advert, reading applications, interviewing and onboarding. If you use a recruitment agency, it will usually charge a fee linked to the first year's salary; ask agencies for their terms, because they vary.

Each time someone leaves, the cost starts again and the desk sits empty while you hire.

In the examples we've assumed £1,500 or $1,500 for each hire, covering advertising and about 20 hours of your own time, and that a receptionist stays two years. That gives £750 or $750 a year. If you use an agency, or your hires tend to leave sooner, your figure will be higher.

Training and management time

A new receptionist needs to learn your services, prices, booking rules and which questions should come straight to you. After that, someone has to agree rotas, approve holiday and run payroll. For a small business that someone is usually you. We haven't put a figure on your time in the examples, but it's real.

Desk, phone and software

A desk and chair, a computer, a headset, a seat on your phone system and a licence for your booking software. Some of this you may already have. In the examples we've allowed £800 or $800 a year.

Worked examples with stated assumptions

Here are the four scenarios from the table at the top, worked through line by line. Change any assumption that doesn't fit your business; the method is what matters.

UK full-time receptionist

Assumptions: £13.50 an hour, 37.5 hours a week, paid for 52 weeks. Employer pension at the 3% legal minimum on qualifying earnings. No Employment Allowance (we show the effect of it below). Holiday cover for 5.6 weeks and sickness cover for 4.4 days, both by an agency temp at £20 an hour. Recruitment £1,500 per hire, with a two-year stay. Equipment and software £800 a year.

That's about £3,045 a month. Spread over the 1,950 hours a year the desk is staffed (37.5 × 52, including the hours the temp covers), it's about £18.74 per staffed hour, or roughly 39% more than the hourly wage.

If you can claim the Employment Allowance and it isn't already used up by other staff, take off the £3,198.75 of National Insurance and the total falls to about £33,340.

UK part-time receptionist

Assumptions: £13.00 an hour, 20 hours a week (close to the ONS median for part-time receptionists), paid for 52 weeks. Earnings above £10,000, so auto-enrolment applies at the 3% minimum. Holiday cover for 5.6 weeks and sickness cover at the ONS average rate of 2.0% of hours, by a temp at £20 an hour. Same recruitment and equipment costs as the full-time example, because the advert, interviews and desk don't halve with the hours.

That's about £1,600 a month, or £18.48 per staffed hour across 1,040 hours. Per hour, it's almost the same as the full-time hire. What you save is the total, and what you give up is coverage: 20 hours a week out of the 45 or 50 that many small businesses are open.

US full-time receptionist

Assumptions: the BLS national median of $18.27 an hour, 40 hours a week, paid for 2,080 hours a year including paid time off. Ten days of paid vacation, six paid public holidays and five sick days, all covered by a temp at $28 an hour. Single health insurance at the KFF average employer share. A 3% retirement contribution. State unemployment tax of $300 and workers' compensation of $150, both assumptions that vary by state. Recruitment and equipment as above.

That's about $4,725 a month, or $27.25 per staffed hour across 2,080 hours: about 49% on top of the wage. Without health insurance, which many very small employers don't offer, the total drops to about $48,795.

As a cross-check, the BLS figures for office and administrative jobs put wages at 68.7% of total compensation. Dividing the median wage by 0.687 gives about $55,300, which is close to our line-by-line total once you allow for the cover, recruitment and equipment that the BLS figure doesn't include.

US part-time receptionist

Assumptions: $18.27 an hour, 20 hours a week, 1,040 hours a year. No health insurance or retirement contribution, which is a common arrangement for part-time roles but not a rule. Two weeks off a year plus three sick days, paid, covered by a temp at $28 an hour. SUTA $300 and workers' compensation $75, both assumptions. Recruitment and equipment as above.

That's about $1,990 a month, or $22.96 per staffed hour. Note that FUTA, SUTA and the fixed costs weigh more heavily on a part-time wage, which is why the per-hour figure is well above the wage even without benefits.

Hours covered against hours customers call

A full-time receptionist covers less than a quarter of the 168 hours in a week, and customers call at lunchtime, before work, in the evening and at weekends. A receptionist also handles one call at a time: if two people ring at 9:05 on a Monday, one waits. So the question isn't only "how much does a receptionist cost?" but "how many calls will one receptionist still miss?" Pull your call logs and look at when calls arrive and how many come in at once. Our guide on how to never miss a customer call covers how to read those logs.

Full-time, part-time or shared

Full-time gives you one person who knows the business and covers the core day. It's the right choice when the desk is genuinely busy with visitors, payments and paperwork as well as calls. It's the most expensive option and still leaves evenings, weekends and lunch uncovered.

Part-time costs less in total but about the same per hour. It works when calls cluster, such as a salon's Thursday evenings and Saturdays or a clinic's morning rush. Two part-timers on overlapping shifts can cover more of the week than one full-timer, at the cost of a second hire.

Shared roles are common: the receptionist also does admin, invoicing or stock. If half their time goes on work you'd otherwise pay for, only half the cost is really the cost of answering the phone, but calls wait while they're busy with the other half.

Virtual receptionist and answering services

A virtual receptionist service answers your calls remotely, usually as part of a shared team of receptionists answering for many businesses. You pay for the calls or minutes they handle, not for a person's whole day.

US provider Ruby is a useful example because it publishes its prices. As of October 2026, Ruby's pricing page lists 50 receptionist minutes for $250 a month, 100 minutes for $395, 200 minutes for $720 and 500 minutes for $1,725. At 200 minutes, that's $3.60 a minute. If an average call takes three minutes, the 200-minute plan covers around 66 calls a month. Many UK answering services quote on request rather than publishing prices, often per call, so get quotes from two or three before comparing.

You get a real person on the line who can take a message, often book from your calendar and transfer the call to you. You don't get someone who knows your business like an in-house hire, and per-minute pricing climbs quickly with long calls or growing volumes.

For a side-by-side look at specific services, see our comparisons with Ruby and Moneypenny.

AI receptionists as an alternative

An AI receptionist answers the phone, and often your website chat and messaging, using a voice model trained on information you give it. The cost model is very different from a person: a monthly plan, usually with an allowance of minutes or conversations, and no on-costs, holiday or sickness.

We cover the pricing models, vendor prices and hidden costs in detail in our separate guide to AI receptionist cost, so we won't repeat it here. The relevant points for this comparison:

• It covers the hours a person doesn't. An AI answers at 7 am, at lunch and on Sunday evening. That's usually the strongest case for it, rather than replacing a person outright.
• It answers more than one call at a time, so the Monday-morning rush doesn't leave callers waiting.
• It doesn't do the rest of the front desk. It won't greet someone who walks in, take a card payment at the counter, calm an upset regular in person or sort the post.
• It has limits on the phone. Some AI receptionists can transfer a call live to a person; others, including ours today, can't.

Klugon's AI receptionist is one option. The AI phone receptionist answers calls in English and eight other languages, books into Klugon's own calendar using your opening hours and service lengths, takes details as a lead, and answers questions from information you give it. When it can't help, it flags the conversation for your team, and that flag can be posted to Slack or Zapier on voice Business plans and up. It can't put the caller through to a person, it doesn't record calls, and it doesn't send texts, reminders or confirmation emails. The voice plans start at $99 a month for 1,000 minutes, plus $9 a month for a phone number, priced in US dollars; the full detail is on the pricing page. There's a 7-day trial, a card is required, and real phone calls start once the trial ends.

For a direct comparison of what a person and an AI each do well, read AI receptionist vs human receptionist.

Combining options

For many small businesses the answer isn't one or the other:

• A part-time receptionist for the busy hours, plus an AI or answering service for the rest. Often cheaper than a full-timer, and it covers more of the week.
• A full-time receptionist plus after-hours answering. Holiday cover becomes less urgent, because the phone is answered either way.
• No receptionist, with staff taking calls and a service catching the overflow. Common in trades, where the work happens away from a desk.

Whatever you choose, you can keep your existing number and forward calls when nobody's free. Our post on keeping your number with call forwarding explains how.

How to work out your own receptionist cost

Use this checklist to build your own figure. Write each number down; you'll need them to compare options fairly.

1. Pay rate. Check three or four local adverts and the ONS or BLS median.
2. Hours. How many hours a week the desk must be staffed, and which ones.
3. Statutory on-costs. UK: National Insurance and pension. US: Social Security, Medicare, FUTA, SUTA and workers' compensation.
4. Allowances. UK: the Employment Allowance. US: your state unemployment rate.
5. Benefits beyond the legal minimum.
6. Cover. Hours of holiday and sickness, times the hourly cost of cover.
7. Recruitment, divided by how long you expect the person to stay.
8. Equipment and software.
9. Total and per staffed hour.
10. Calls still missed, from your call logs.

Then compare the alternatives on the same basis: hours covered, calls handled, and what each can and can't do.

When hiring a receptionist is the right call

It's easy for a cost guide to read like an argument against hiring. It isn't. A person at the front desk is worth the cost when:

• People walk in. Clinics, salons, gyms, vets and offices with visitors need someone to greet them, check them in and take payment.
• Calls need judgement. A worried pet owner, a patient describing symptoms, a client with a complaint or a legal question needs a human, and in regulated settings that's not optional. Practices like dentists and law firms usually need a trained person for those calls.
• The role does more than answer the phone. Scheduling staff, handling post and payments, chasing invoices and keeping the place running all add value that no answering service replaces.
• Relationships matter. Regulars who are greeted by name come back.

Alternatives usually win on the hours a receptionist can't reach: evenings, weekends, lunch, holidays and the moments when two phones ring at once. If you're trying to decide what the role would actually need to cover, our guide to what an AI receptionist is sets out what an AI handles and what it hands back to you.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a receptionist cost per hour?

In the UK, the ONS put median receptionist pay at £12.95 an hour in April 2025, and the National Living Wage rose to £12.71 in April 2026. Add employer National Insurance, pension, cover and other costs, and a full-time receptionist on £13.50 an hour costs about £18.75 per staffed hour in our worked example. In the US, the BLS median was $18.27 an hour in May 2025, and our example comes to about $27.25 per staffed hour with health insurance.

How much does a full-time receptionist cost a year?

In our UK example, a full-time receptionist on £13.50 an hour costs about £36,500 a year including on-costs, cover, recruitment and equipment, or about £33,300 if you can use the Employment Allowance. In our US example, a full-time receptionist on the median wage with single health insurance costs about $56,700, or about $48,800 without health insurance.

What are employer on-costs for a receptionist in the UK?

For 2026 to 2027, employer National Insurance is 15% of earnings above £5,000 a year, and the minimum employer pension contribution is 3% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 for staff who are auto-enrolled. On top of that, you pay holiday pay for 5.6 weeks a year, sick pay, and the cost of covering those absences.

What payroll taxes do US employers pay on a receptionist?

Employers pay 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare on wages, federal unemployment tax that's usually $42 per employee a year after the state credit, state unemployment tax at a rate set by your state, and workers' compensation insurance in most states. Health insurance, paid time off and retirement contributions are optional but common.

Is a part-time receptionist cheaper?

In total, yes. Per hour, not by much, because recruitment, equipment and some taxes don't shrink with the hours. In our UK examples, the part-timer cost about £18.48 per staffed hour against £18.74 for the full-timer, while covering just over half the hours.

Is a virtual receptionist cheaper than hiring one?

Usually, if your call volume is moderate. As of October 2026, Ruby's 200-minute plan is $720 a month, against roughly $4,700 a month for a full-time US hire in our example. But a virtual receptionist only answers calls; it doesn't greet visitors or do admin, and per-minute costs rise quickly with long or frequent calls.

Can an AI receptionist replace a human receptionist?

For answering calls, booking appointments and taking details out of hours, often yes. For the front desk as a whole, usually not: it can't greet visitors, take payment at the counter or handle calls that need judgement, and some AI receptionists, including Klugon, can't transfer a call live. Many businesses use an AI to cover the hours and overflow a person can't reach.

Where does this receptionist pay data come from?

UK pay comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional, occupation code 4216. US pay comes from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025. Employer costs come from HMRC, the IRS, the BLS and KFF, each linked in the guide.

Pay data and tax rates change every year, so treat the examples as a method rather than a price list, and run the checklist with your own figures.