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The national median salary for Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners is $67,309 per year ($32.36/hr) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2024. The middle 50% of earners make between $50,211 and $92,706 annually. Top earners at the 90th percentile reach $127,026 per year. There are approximately 12,630 court reporters and simultaneous captioners employed in the United States.
About This Role
BLS Standard Occupational Classification 2018
Use verbatim methods and equipment to capture, store, retrieve, and transcribe pretrial and trial proceedings or other information. Includes stenocaptioners who operate computerized stenographic captioning equipment to provide captions of live or prerecorded broadcasts for hearing-impaired viewers.
Career Outlook
BLS Employment Projections · 2024-2034
10-year growth
-0.3%
Little or no change
Annual openings
2K
per year, on avg
Workforce today
18K
as of 2024
Why those openings exist
0% from new growth100% from people leaving the role
Most openings come from replacement, not growth. Retention matters more than recruiting here.
Typical entry requirements
Education
Postsecondary nondegree award
Experience
None
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training
Industry Wage Breakdown
Top 5 industries by employment · median annual wage, sector-specific
Industry
Workforce
Median Pay
Local Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals (OEWS Designation)
NAICS 999300
5K
$75,150
Business Support Services
NAICS 561400
4K
$51,290
State Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals (OEWS Designation)
NAICS 999200
4K
$74,660
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
NAICS 611300
120
$57,760
Motion Picture and Video Industries
NAICS 512100
100
$66,150
Wage range across top 5 industries: $51,290 to $75,150 (47% spread)
Wage Percentiles
Hourly & annualized (2,080 hours)
Percentile
Hourly Rate
Annual Salary
P10
$18.80
$39,104
P25
$24.14
$50,211
P50MEDIAN
$32.36
$67,309
P75
$44.57
$92,706
P90
$61.07
$127,026
Market Context Signal
JOLTS · professional sector
Cooling
Openings Rate
4.2%
Quits Rate
2.0%
Professional & Business Services openings tumbled 318K in March -- the largest single-sector drop in this release. Openings rate fell from 5.5% to 4.2%. Layoffs jumped to 527K (+99K). White-collar demand has cooled abruptly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average court reporters and simultaneous captioners salary?
The national median salary for Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners is $67,309 per year ($32.36/hr) according to BLS OEWS May 2024 data. The middle 50% earn between $50,211 and $92,706 annually.
How much do top-earning court reporters and simultaneous captioners make?
The 90th percentile salary for Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners is $127,026 per year ($61.07/hr). The 75th percentile is $92,706 per year.
What is the entry-level salary for court reporters and simultaneous captioners?
Entry-level Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (10th percentile) earn approximately $39,104 per year ($18.80/hr). The 25th percentile is $50,211 per year.
Wage figures on this page come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2024 release. OEWS surveys roughly 1.1 million establishments annually. It is the most comprehensive employer-reported wage dataset in the United States.
P10 through P90 percentiles represent the wage distribution across all surveyed employers (not self-reported by workers). Geographic adjustments use BLS-derived cost multipliers calibrated from regional wage variation.
Wages are estimates. Individual compensation depends on experience, education, employer size, industry, and negotiation. Use this as benchmark context, not absolute ground truth.
CompSignal is a free labor market intelligence tool built for HR, compensation, and talent acquisition teams. We make BLS data, the same primary source Mercer and Radford cross-reference in their paid surveys, searchable and actionable without an enterprise subscription.
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