How much do accounts payable specialists make in 2026?
Accounts payable specialists are counted in the BLS bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks series, where OEWS May 2025 gives a national median of $50,670 a year ($24.36 an hour), with the bottom 10% near $36,000 and the top 10% at $74,550. The series pools 1,373,680 clerks across bookkeeping, payable, receivable and general accounting support, so it does not price accounts payable distinctly — specialists typically sit around the middle of the band, with senior and supervisory roles reaching the 75th percentile. The role covers invoice receipt and coding, three-way matching against purchase orders and receipts, approval routing, payment run preparation and execution, vendor statement reconciliation, expense report processing, month-end accruals and vendor query resolution. Employment across the pooled series is projected to decline 5.8% through 2034, and accounts payable is squarely in the path of that: invoice capture, automated coding and matching, and supplier portals have removed much of the keying. The work that remains and pays is exception handling, vendor relationship management, controls against payment fraud, and the accounting judgement behind accruals and cut-off. Roughly 170,000 openings a year still arise across the series. → Full accounts payable specialist career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $50,670 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.
- Accounts Payable Specialists earn a national median $50,670/yr ($24.36/hr) (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 43-3031); the P10 to P90 range is $36,000 to $74,550.
- The $50,670 median comes from a 1,373,680-person series pooling bookkeeping, payable, receivable and general accounting clerks; AP specialists sit around the middle of the $36,000 to $74,550 band.
- Employment across the series is projected to decline 5.8% through 2034, and accounts payable is directly exposed — invoice capture, automated matching and supplier portals have removed much of the manual processing.
- The durable work is exception handling, vendor management, payment fraud controls and the accounting judgement behind accruals and cut-off.
US Accounts Payable Specialist Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do accounts payable specialists earn at each level?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation and does not break pay out by credential or practice level. The levels below distribute the published percentile range across the credential tiers this role actually hires at.
Level medians are aligned to the BLS OEWS May 2025 percentile distribution for SOC 43-3031; GlobalCybers does not yet publish a verified placement sample for this role, so no verified median is shown.
Methodology & Sources
How the numbers on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 43-3031, United States national estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them.
Level and certification medians: distributed across the published BLS percentile range for this SOC code (P10 through P90) according to the credential tiers this occupation actually hires at. They are modeled reference points, not separately surveyed wages.
State and metro figures: modeled — the BLS national median multiplied by the GlobalCybers state wage index, and for metros by the published metro index for that state. They are estimates of local pay, not BLS state or metropolitan-area observations, and are labelled as modeled in the tables below.
No verified placement sample:GlobalCybers does not yet publish a placement median for this role, so no "verified" figure appears anywhere on this page.
Pay by Career Level
How much does an accounts payable specialist earn at each career stage?
Accounts payable pay progresses from processing to control and analysis. Each median is anchored to the BLS OEWS distribution for SOC 43-3031, which pools several clerical accounting roles.
By State
Which states pay accounts payable specialists the most in 2026?
State figures are modeled estimates — the BLS national median multiplied by the GlobalCybers salary-calculator state wage index — not BLS state observations. Accounts payable has been widely centralised into shared service centres, which are often located deliberately in lower-cost markets — a point worth understanding when reading any geographic figure for this role.
6 of 51 state guides shown, ranked by median. Bar is relative to California ($58,270), the highest-paying state shown. See all role salary guides →
By Metro
Which cities pay accounts payable specialists the most?
Metro figures are modeled — national median times state wage index times published metro index — not BLS MSA observations. The centralisation of payable processing means many of these roles sit in shared service locations rather than at headquarters.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Nominal pay — weigh each metro against its cost of living before relocating.
Certification Impact
Which certifications raise an accounts payable specialist’s pay the most?
Median annual pay before and after each credential, based on GlobalCybers placement data cross-referenced with BLS. License upgrades move the needle most; stackable certs add on top.
Impacts are not additive, the licensing rows share the same career ladder. Browse all 167 certifications →
Trade Comparison
How does accounts payable specialist pay compare to related roles?
BLS OEWS national median across the closest trades. Accounts Payable Specialists sit mid-pack on median but carry one of the widest P10–P90 spreads, licensing and specialization drive the upside.
BLS OEWS May 2025. Verify accounts payable specialist wages on BLS.gov →
Take-Home Pay
What does an accounts payable specialist actually take home after taxes?
The medians above are gross base wage.
Estimates use 2026 federal brackets, standard deduction, and 7.65% FICA. Actual take-home varies with filing status, deductions, and local tax.
FAQ
Accounts Payable Specialist Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
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