How much does a data entry keyers make?

The median data entry keyers salary in the United States is $41,340 per year ($19.88/hour). Salaries range from $31,200 (10th percentile) to $58,790 (90th percentile). There are 127,080 data entry keyers jobs in the U.S. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS.

Which state pays data entry keyerss the most?

The highest paying state for data entry keyerss is District of Columbia at $55,170 median salary.

Is data entry keyers a good career?

Data Entry Keyers employment is projected to decline 25.9% from 2024 to 2034 (decline). There are approximately 9,500 job openings per year. Typical education required: High school diploma or equivalent.

What interview questions are asked for data entry keyers roles?

Common data entry keyers interview questions include: "What are your keystroke speed and accuracy scores, and how do you keep them there?", "Walk me through how you handle an unclear record — bad handwriting or an OCR misread.", "How do you maintain accuracy through hour 8 of a 10-hour shift?". Interview format at top employers ranges from behavioral panels (STAR method) to technical case rounds — for example Progressive Insurance (Claim Keyer) typically uses 3-4 rounds over 2-3 weeks.

What is the career ladder for data entry keyerss?

The typical data entry keyers career ladder: Junior Data Entry Keyer (0-2 yrs, $31-36k ($15-17/hr)) → Data Entry Keyer / Claim Keyer / Billing Keyer (2-5 yrs, $38-46k ($18-22/hr)) → Sr Keyer / QA Reviewer / Team Lead (5-10 yrs, $48-59k ($23-28/hr)) → Team Supervisor / Ops Analyst / Medical Coder (lateral) (8+ yrs, $60-95k (out of BLS band; exits into supervisor or credentialed-role pay scale)).

What certifications should data entry keyerss get?

Top-ROI certifications for data entry keyerss: Certified Professional Biller (CPB) — AAPC ($399 exam (member) / $499 (non-member) + $400-800 in prep material); Certified Professional Coder (CPC) — AAPC ($399-499 exam + $1,200-2,500 in prep coursework); Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) — AHIMA ($399-499 exam + $500-1,500 prep).

How do you negotiate a data entry keyers salary?

Anchor on documented market data (BLS median $41,340, p75 $48,410), specific outcomes you've delivered, and the specific band for your years of experience. Given 5 years of experience, AAPC CPB certification, and a 12-month track record of 99.4% accuracy at 138% of team-baseline throughput, the market for a Sr Claim Keyer at a large carrier in this metro is $46-54k base pl...

Data Entry Keyers Salary

The median data entry keyers salary in the United States is $41,340 per year ($19.88/hour). Salaries range from $31,200 at the entry level to $58,790+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 127,080 data entry keyers jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to decline 25.9% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 · Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary

$41,340

per year

Hourly Rate

$19.88

per hour

Employment

127,080

jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile

$31,200

25th percentile

$35,760

Median

$41,340

75th percentile

$48,410

90th percentile

$58,790

Job Growth (2024-2034)

-25.9%

Decline

Annual Openings

9,500

jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

High school diploma or equivalent

Training Needed

Short-term on-the-job training

Data Entry Keyers Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for data entry keyerss.

Data entry keyers do high-volume keying into records and transaction systems — insurance claim entry at Progressive and GEICO, healthcare billing at Optum and Cotiviti, back-office keying at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America operations centers, and federal-contract keying at Maximus and GDIT. BLS reports 127,080 employed with median $41,340, p10 $31,200, and p90 $58,790. Entry pay $31-36k, established $38-46k, senior $48-59k. Automation and OCR compress the low-complexity work every year, so the pay premium goes to keyers who master exception handling, quality auditing, and specialized keying environments (medical, insurance, financial ops). Keystroke speed above 12,000 ksph with 99%+ accuracy separates hire-ables from top-quartile.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Keystroke speed & accuracy (10,000-14,000 ksph @ >=99%)

Standard pre-hire test at Optum, Progressive, Cotiviti, Maximus. Speed alone isn't enough — the accuracy floor is the real gate. Numeric keying is scored separately; 12,000+ nksph at 99.5% is the top-quartile bar.

10-key numeric proficiency

Critical for insurance claim entry, financial ops, and healthcare billing. Fluent 10-key without looking at the pad is required at any high-volume shop. Practice on Typing.com or 10FastFingers keeps the reflex sharp.

Double-entry / verification workflow

Regulated environments (medical billing, federal contracts) use double-entry where two keyers input the same record and the system flags mismatches for review. Fluency in the verifier role commands 8-12% more than straight keyer pay.

OCR exception handling

Modern shops route OCR-confidence-below-threshold records to human keyers. You're keying only the fields the OCR flagged — but those are the hardest fields (handwriting, degraded scans, unusual formats). Speed on exception queues is a Sr-level skill.

Specialty-domain keying (medical, insurance, financial)

Medical claim keying requires ICD-10 and CPT literacy; insurance FNOL keying requires policy-structure literacy; financial ops keying requires transaction-code literacy. Each specialty carries a 10-20% pay premium.

Records-integrity discipline

Every keyed record has downstream consequences — a wrong policy number at Progressive delays claim payment; a wrong CPT at Optum causes a denial. Top keyers self-QA their work and know the top 10 error patterns for their domain cold.

Time-per-record and shift-throughput management

Every shop tracks records-per-hour, average handle time, and daily throughput. Top-quartile keyers hit 130-150% of the team average without dropping accuracy below the 99% floor.

How to Become a Data Entry Keyers

1
High school diploma or GED (associate's helps for specialty domains)
Most entry roles accept HS diploma. Medical billing keyers benefit from a Medical Billing & Coding certificate; financial ops keyers benefit from a bookkeeping certificate.
2
Pass the pre-hire typing and 10-key test at 8,000-10,000 ksph @ 98%
Optum, Progressive, GEICO, Maximus, GDIT all screen with a proctored test. Practice for 2-4 weeks on Typing.com, 10FastFingers, or Ratatype before you interview.
3
Start in an entry keyer role for 12-18 months
$31-36k. Learn the specific system — Guidewire (Progressive), athenaOne / Epic Billing (Optum), Cotiviti's claim-audit platform, or the bank's proprietary keying UI. Build reflexes and hit the team throughput baseline.
4
Add a domain credential — CPB / CPC for medical, CPCU 500 for insurance, bookkeeping cert for finance
$38-46k. CPB (AAPC) is the highest-ROI credential for healthcare billing keyers — lifts pay 15-25% and unlocks the Medical Coder lateral. CPCU 500 is the entry cert for insurance ops progression.
5
Move into Sr keyer, QA reviewer, or team lead
$48-59k. Sr keyers own the exception queue and mentor new hires. From there the exit ramps are Medical Coder ($50-70k), Claims Adjuster trainee ($52-72k), or Ops Analyst ($55-80k). Data entry alone is being automated; the credential-plus-domain path is the durable one.

Career Progression

Junior Data Entry Keyer

0-2 yrs$31-36k ($15-17/hr)

•Key records into the shop's production system at the team-baseline throughput
•Meet keystroke accuracy target (>=98% at 30-day mark, >=99% at 90-day mark)
•Escalate exceptions and unclear records to Sr keyer or supervisor
•Complete domain training (medical billing basics, insurance claim structure, or financial transaction codes)

Next: Full Keyer at 1-2 years once accuracy and throughput are consistently on target.

Data Entry Keyer / Claim Keyer / Billing Keyer

2-5 yrs$38-46k ($18-22/hr)

•Independently key at 130-150% of team-baseline throughput at >=99.3% accuracy
•Handle exception queue and OCR-flagged records without escalation
•Complete domain-specific training (CPB, CPCU 500, or bookkeeping)
•Serve as system SME for the primary keying UI (Guidewire, athenaOne, Cotiviti claim platform)

Next: Sr Keyer / QA reviewer at 4-7 years, once you're consistently top-quartile.

Sr Keyer / QA Reviewer / Team Lead

5-10 yrs$48-59k ($23-28/hr)

•Own the exception queue and act as escalation point for a team of 6-15 keyers
•QA-sample 10-25% of team work; coach individual accuracy and throughput
•Lead new-hire onboarding — shadow, co-keying, and 30/60/90 accuracy sign-off
•Partner with Ops / IT on keying UI defects and productivity improvements

Next: Ops Analyst, Medical Coder, or Team Supervisor — a lateral into a higher-paying credentialed role.

Team Supervisor / Ops Analyst / Medical Coder (lateral)

8+ yrs$60-95k (out of BLS band; exits into supervisor or credentialed-role pay scale)

•Supervise 15-40 keyers across shifts; own hiring, coaching, retention
•Own team KPIs: throughput, accuracy, denial or rework rate, and staff retention
•Report to Director of Operations or VP Claims / Billing
•Own the automation roadmap for the keying function — retire tasks, retrain staff into higher-value work

Next: Director of Operations, Coding Supervisor, or exit to a Claims Analyst / Ops Analyst career track.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 17 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. What are your keystroke speed and accuracy scores, and how do you keep them there?technical

Numbers first: '12,400 ksph and 8,900 nksph on the most recent 5-minute Typing.com test, at 99.3% accuracy.' Then the habits: warm up with a 90-second drill at the start of the shift, take a 3-5 minute micro-break every 90 minutes to prevent error clustering, self-QA the last 10 records of each hour, and log personal error patterns weekly. Concrete numbers beat 'I'm a fast typist' every time. Interviewers at Optum, Progressive, and Cotiviti benchmark you against a team baseline (typically 10,000-11,000 ksph); knowing where you sit is a signal.

Q2. Walk me through how you handle an unclear record — bad handwriting or an OCR misread.situational

Never guess. Standard workflow: (1) Zoom in on the source image to confirm the OCR-flagged character. (2) Check adjacent fields for context — a policy number's group code, a claim's date-of-service, a subscriber's DOB — that can disambiguate. (3) If still unclear, route to Sr keyer or supervisor per the shop's exception protocol; at Optum and Cotiviti that queue is called 'suspend for review' or similar. Under no circumstances substitute a plausible guess — a wrong policy number at Progressive causes a claim to route to the wrong policyholder, which is a HIPAA-adjacent event.

Q3. How do you maintain accuracy through hour 8 of a 10-hour shift?behavioral

Fatigue is the top cause of end-of-shift errors. Concrete habits: (1) Shift stretch every 90 minutes (posture and hand micro-stretches). (2) Water and low-sugar snacks; avoid mid-shift heavy carbs which spike then crash. (3) Reset every 100 records — quick 30-second breather, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds (the 20-20-20 rule prevents eye fatigue that causes character transposition). (4) The last hour is your highest-error window; slow throughput 5-10% and increase self-QA sampling. Optum, Maximus, and Progressive all schedule protected micro-breaks for exactly this reason.

Q4. Why data entry rather than a call-center or customer-service role?culture

The honest answer: you like structured, quantifiable work — throughput and accuracy are measured every day and you know exactly how you compare to the team. You want a job where the workflow is quiet and disciplined rather than emotionally taxing. You want to build depth in a specific domain (medical billing, insurance claims, financial ops) and use data entry as the entry ramp toward a credentialed role like Medical Coder or Claims Analyst. Naming the specific credential path signals you understand automation is compressing generic keying and you're building for the long term.

Q5. Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?closer

Show the ladder. From full keyer ($38-46k) the paths are: Sr Keyer or QA Reviewer at $48-59k; then either Medical Coder ($50-70k with CPC), Claims Adjuster trainee ($52-72k), Ops Analyst ($55-80k), or Team Supervisor ($60-90k). Name the credential you're pursuing — CPB / CPC (AAPC) for medical, CPCU 500 for insurance, or a bookkeeping certificate for finance. Hiring managers screen for candidates who understand data entry alone is compressed by automation and who are building the credential that gets them out of the keying seat within 3-4 years.

Resume Template — Data Entry Keyer / Claim Keyer (2-5 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Data Entry Keyer / Claim Keyer (2-5 yrs)

▸Keyed 380-450 claim records per shift in Guidewire ClaimCenter at Progressive Insurance; 99.4% accuracy over the last 12 months and 138% of team-baseline throughput.
▸Handled OCR exception queue independently; cut average exception resolution time from 4.2 min to 2.6 min through a personal keyboard-shortcut mapping shared with the team.
▸AAPC CPB (Certified Professional Biller); currently studying for CPC exam scheduled Q2.
▸$20.50/hr ($42.6k) + $2/hr night differential + $1,500 annual performance bonus at 110% of quota.

What Gets You Rejected

✗Keystroke speed below 8,000 ksph or accuracy below 98% on the pre-hire test — nearly every high-volume shop hard-screens this.
✗Guessing on unclear records instead of routing to the exception queue.
✗No 10-key fluency for numeric-heavy roles (insurance claims, financial ops, healthcare billing).
✗Weak audit trail habits — leaves records open on unattended screens, doesn't self-QA, doesn't track personal error patterns.
✗No credential path — treats data entry as a permanent role rather than a ramp toward Medical Coder, Claims Analyst, or Ops Analyst. Managers see this as high-flight-risk hiring.

Salary Negotiation Levers

✓Credential premium — CPB (AAPC) lifts healthcare billing keyer pay 15-25%; CPC lifts it 25-40% and unlocks the Medical Coder lateral. CPCU 500 lifts insurance ops pay 10-15%.
✓Shift differential — evenings +8-12%, overnights +10-18%, weekends +5-10% at most operations centers. Ask for both base and differential.
✓Metro adjustment — SF, NYC, Boston, DC operations center pay is 15-25% above the BLS national median. Anchor to metro-specific data.
✓Bilingual capability — Spanish-English adds 5-10% at Progressive, GEICO, and Optum, especially in TX, FL, CA, and NY.
✓Specialty-domain premium — medical billing keying pays 10-18% above generic keying; insurance FNOL keying pays 8-15%; financial ops keying pays 5-12%.
✓Retention and referral bonuses — Optum pays $1,000-2,500 6-month and 12-month retention bonuses; Maximus and GDIT pay $500-1,500 referral bonuses. Confirm eligibility timelines before signing.
✓Tuition reimbursement — the highest long-term ROI. Optum, JPMC, and BofA cover 60-100% of a Medical Billing & Coding certificate ($1,500-4,000) or an AAS. Confirm 6-12 month eligibility window.

Data Entry Keyers Resume Review — $29

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✓ All 17 interview questions with expert answers
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✓ Resume bullets for every level of the career ladder
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Data Entry Keyers Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) →

Salary Map — Click a state for details

$34K

$55K■ No data

Top Paying States

Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.

State	Median	vs. National	Employment
District of Columbia	$55,170	+33.5%	200
New Mexico	$49,810	+20.5%	300
North Dakota	$48,300	+16.8%	110
Maine	$48,190	+16.6%	140
Hawaii	$47,630	+15.2%	210
Massachusetts	$47,560	+15.0%	1,590
Washington	$47,480	+14.9%	1,360
Utah	$47,180	+14.1%	2,140
California	$47,010	+13.7%	14,520
Wyoming	$45,870	+11.0%	140

Showing 1–10 of 49

Data Entry Keyers Salary by Metro Area

Metro Area	Median	vs. National
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$54,510	+31.9%
Albuquerque, NM	$53,320	+29.0%
Bismarck, ND	$53,140	+28.5%
Bloomington, IN	$51,760	+25.2%
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA	$51,660	+25.0%
New Haven, CT	$51,340	+24.2%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$51,250	+24.0%
Boulder, CO	$49,920	+20.8%
Helena, MT	$49,850	+20.6%
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC	$49,280	+19.2%

Showing 1–10 of 302

Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.

How does this compare to pro athletes?

A data entry keyers earning $41,340/year would need 1442 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 1548 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.

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