How To Become A Payroll Clerk: What It Is and Career Path

What is a payroll clerk and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A payroll clerk is a member of the HR team and is primarily responsible for keeping track of the employees' working hours and accurately calculating their salaries based on this information. They perform data entry, update, and maintain payroll records. They create timesheets, prepare payment statements, and issue paychecks.

They calculate bonuses, extra hours, benefits, taxes, and all that jazz. They clear away the doubts employees might have and investigate any inconsistency in calculations.

Now, in most job descriptions, you will find keen attention to detail as one of the important skills to have in order to be successful. As far as payroll clerks are concerned, though, this requirement weighs in extra. You do not want to be the reason why people fail to get the wages they are entitled to; this much is easy to see.

ScorePayroll ClerkUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $41,602

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.6

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.52%

Asian 6.02%

Black or African American 10.17%

Hispanic or Latino 18.23%

Unknown 6.07%

White 58.00%

Gender

female 87.59%

male 12.41%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress level

6.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a payroll clerk

Explore payroll clerk education requirements

Most common payroll clerk degrees

Bachelor's

34.1 %

Associate

31.4 %

High School Diploma

20.9 %

Start to develop specific payroll clerk skills

Skills	Percentages
Data Entry	18.78%
Payroll System	10.39%
Photocopying	6.69%
Excellent Organizational	6.48%
Customer Service	6.03%

Complete relevant payroll clerk training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New payroll clerks learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a payroll clerk based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real payroll clerk resumes.

Research payroll clerk duties and responsibilities

Manage all worker compensation and cobra benefit issues and filings.
Manage employee drug and background screenings, train new hires and verify I9 information.
Process payroll; assist in establishing new time and attendance (KRONOS) computer system; balance insurance billings.
View, key, post and monitor time and labor, absences and leave balances in PeopleSoft HRIS system.

Prepare your payroll clerk resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your payroll clerk resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a payroll clerk resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable payroll clerk resume templates

Build a professional payroll clerk resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your payroll clerk resume.