Payroll clerks
Almost every task can be done with generative AI, with little uncertainty. This is where the change is biggest — and where switching makes most sense.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 11/10/2026How is it made?
With an exposure score of 61/100, payroll clerks face extensive automation in record verification and routine calculations, yet high replacement demand and complex discrepancy reconciliation keep human oversight essential as clerical workflows shift toward payroll systems auditing.
What changes
- Automated cross-referencing and verification of timesheets, logged hours, and pay adjustments into core records.
- Software-driven tracking of employee attendance, leave balances, and overtime calculations for benefit entitlement rules.
- Automated batch calculation of gross-to-net earnings statements and routine electronic fund disbursement processing.
What stays human
- Investigating and resolving complex wage discrepancies, misreported hours, and contested pay exceptions with employees.
- Interpreting nuanced statutory deductions, unique garnishment orders, and specific collective bargaining agreements accurately.
- Advising workers empathetically on sensitive compensation errors, benefit adjustments, and personal deductions disputes.
What to learn
- Advanced administration of modern HRIS payroll platforms and automated workflow validation controls.
- Labor law compliance, jurisdictional tax code interpretation, and multi-state wage regulations expertise.
- Analytical payroll auditing and exception-handling methodologies to detect system miscalculations promptly.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Verifying attendance, hours worked and pay adjustments, and posting information onto designated records.70
- Maintaining records of employee attendance, leave and overtime to calculate pay and benefit entitlements, using manual or computerized systems67
- Preparing and verifying statements of earnings for employees, indicating gross and net salaries and deductions such as taxes, union dues, garnishments and insurance and pension plans58
- Preparing employee payments and benefit payments by cheque or electronic transfer58
- Reviewing time sheets, work charts, wage computation and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies51
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Verifying attendance, hours worked and pay adjustments, and posting information onto designated records.(70)
- Maintaining records of employee attendance, leave and overtime to calculate pay and benefit entitlements, using manual or computerized systems(67)
- Preparing and verifying statements of earnings for employees, indicating gross and net salaries and deductions such as taxes, union dues, garnishments and insurance and pension plans(58)
- Preparing employee payments and benefit payments by cheque or electronic transfer(58)
- Reviewing time sheets, work charts, wage computation and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies(51)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 61.)
About 100% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Verifying attendance, hours worked and pay adjustments, and posting information onto designated records.
- • Maintaining records of employee attendance, leave and overtime to calculate pay and benefit entitlements, using manual or computerized systems
- • Reviewing time sheets, work charts, wage computation and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies
- • Preparing employee payments and benefit payments by cheque or electronic transfer
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Numerical and material recording clerks group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Numerical and material recording clerks |
|---|---|
| Belgium | 4.6% · 238 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 4.4% · 75 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 4.3% · 112 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 3.8% · 372 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 3.6% · 1,504 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 3.5% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 3.1% · 164 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 3.1% · 31 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 3.0% · 160 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.0% · 519 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 3.0% · 666 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 3.0% · 719 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 2.9% · 143 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 2.9% · 15 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 2.9% · 128 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 2.8% · 81 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 2.4% · 707 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 2.4% · 8 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 2.3% · 67 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 2.3% · 106 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.2% · 19 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 2.2% · 61 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 2.1% · 64 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 2.0% · 30 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 2.0% · 669 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 1.9% · 6 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 1.8% · 94 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 1.8% · 137 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 1.6% · 70 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 1.4% · 35 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 0.5% · 1 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Clerical support workers). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland4,326
- Luxembourg3,358
- Denmark3,338
- Belgium3,291
- Norway3,160
- Germany2,927
- Ireland2,900
- Iceland2,825
- Austria2,768
- Netherlands2,680
- EU272,590
- Italy2,521
- Sweden2,451
- Finland2,386
- Spain2,121
- Slovenia2,111
- Malta2,089
- Lithuania2,049
- France2,018
- Croatia1,847
- Greece1,837
- Poland1,796
- Romania1,755
- Estonia1,740
- Czechia1,725
- Cyprus1,685
- Hungary1,682
- Latvia1,617
- Slovakia1,583
- Portugal1,421
- Bulgaria1,203
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Numerical and material recording clerks group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
According to the WEF
Accounting, Bookkeeping and Payroll Clerks — among the FASTEST-DECLINING jobs (rank 7)
Future 2035 →Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?