How much do claims examiners make in 2026?
Claims examiners earn a national median of $78,000 a year, or $37.50 an hour, on BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 13-1031, claims adjusters, examiners and investigators, with a P10 to P90 range of $48,850 to $117,040 across 324,230 workers. The examiner shares a wage row with field adjusters and investigators, and that pooling matters here because the jobs are genuinely different. An examiner works the file rather than the loss site: reviewing the adjuster's investigation, testing it against policy language, authorising or denying payment and setting reserves within a delegated limit. Pay in this role is set almost entirely by the complexity of the coverage decisions that limit allows. Health and workers compensation examiners handling high volumes of standardised claims sit in the lower half of this band. Examiners in commercial general liability, professional lines, surety or reinsurance, where a single coverage position can be worth seven figures to the carrier, sit in the upper quartile. Line of business, not tenure, is the variable that moves people. BLS projects the occupation to shrink 5.1% through 2034 with roughly 21,100 openings a year. → Full claims examiner career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $78,000 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.
- Claims Examiners earn a national median $78,000/yr ($37.50/hr) (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 13-1031); the P10 to P90 range is $48,850 to $117,040.
- Examiners share SOC 13-1031 with field adjusters and investigators, so this median describes the claims family; the examiner role itself is desk-based coverage adjudication rather than loss inspection.
- Line of business is the dominant pay variable: high-volume health and workers compensation work sits low in the band, while professional lines, surety and reinsurance sit in the upper quartile.
- Delegated authority limits are the mechanism behind progression, because the size of decision you can sign determines which files reach you at all.
US Claims Examiner Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do claims examiners 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 13-1031; 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 13-1031, 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 a claims examiner earn at each career stage?
Examiner pay follows delegated authority and line complexity. Each median below is anchored to the BLS OEWS distribution for SOC 13-1031.
By State
Which states pay claims examiners the most in 2026?
These are modeled state estimates, not BLS state observations: the national median for SOC 13-1031 multiplied by the GlobalCybers state wage index. Examiner work is desk-based and increasingly remote, so the practical geography is the carrier's location rather than the claimant's; the modeled spread below reads as cost of living rather than as a genuine market map for this role.
6 of 51 state guides shown, ranked by median. Bar is relative to California ($89,700), the highest-paying state shown. See all 51 state salary guides →
By Metro
Which cities pay claims examiners the most?
Metro figures are modeled, national median times state wage index times published metro index, not BLS metropolitan observations. Carrier claims centres are frequently sited in lower-cost metros by design, which is one reason examiner pay does not track big-city premiums as closely as this table implies.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Nominal pay — weigh each metro against its cost of living before relocating.
Certification Impact
Which certifications raise a claims examiner’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 claims examiner pay compare to related roles?
BLS OEWS national median across the closest trades. Claims Examiners 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 claims examiner wages on BLS.gov →
Take-Home Pay
What does a claims examiner 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
Claims Examiner Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
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