AI Receptionist vs Hiring a Receptionist: The Real Cost in 2026

Your phone rings all day and you cannot answer it while you work. The obvious fix is to hire someone. But what does that really cost? And is there a cheaper way to get the same result?

Below we use official government numbers so you can see the real picture. Then we compare it with an AI receptionist, and we are honest about when a human is still the better choice.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median pay for receptionists in 2024 was $37,230 a year, or $17.90 an hour. There were about 1 million receptionist jobs in the country.

“Median” means half earn more and half earn less. In big cities, expect to pay more.

The wage is only part of the bill. The BLS tracks what employers really spend per worker. In June 2025, wages made up 70.2% of total employee costs in private industry. Benefits made up the other 29.8%, or about $13.58 per hour.

Those benefits include things like paid time off, insurance, retirement plans, and taxes the law requires you to pay, such as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance.

If a $37,230 receptionist came with average benefits, the total cost would be about $53,000 a year. Many small businesses offer fewer benefits, so your real number may be lower. But it will never be just the wage.

Then there are costs that do not show up on a payslip:

• Hiring time: writing the job post, interviews, and checking references
• Training time: weeks before they know your services and prices
• A desk, a computer, a phone, and software
• Turnover: the BLS expects about 128,500 receptionist openings each year, mostly to replace people who leave. You may do this more than once.

Canada's Job Bank lists the national median wage for receptionists at $21.00 an hour (updated November 2025). It is higher in some provinces, such as British Columbia at $24.00.

At 40 hours a week, $21 an hour comes to about $43,680 a year before anything else. On top of that, employers pay their share of CPP and EI, plus vacation pay (at least 4% in most provinces). Job Bank also reports that 66.3% of receptionists get at least one non-wage benefit, like a health plan.

Realistically, a full-time receptionist in Canada costs most businesses $48,000 to $55,000 a year once everything is added up.

A week has 168 hours. A full-time receptionist works about 40 of them. That covers less than a quarter of the week.

The phone still rings when your receptionist is:

• At lunch or on a break
• Already on another call
• Sick or on vacation
• Home for the night or the weekend

For trades, nights and weekends are often when emergencies happen. A burst pipe on Saturday night still goes to voicemail, even with a receptionist on payroll.

Mercvox plans include 70 to 290 answered calls a month, and extra calls are $1 each. See full details on our pricing page.

An AI receptionist is not the answer for everything. Hiring a person makes sense if:

• You have a front desk with walk-in customers
• You need help with invoicing, ordering parts, or office paperwork
• Your calls are long, complex sales conversations

Many businesses do both. The person handles the office during the day, and the AI picks up the overflow, the lunch hour, the evenings, and the weekends. That way, no call is ever missed and your staff is not buried in the phone.

If your main problem is simply that calls go unanswered, start with the AI. It costs a fraction of a salary, and you can test it free for 14 days before deciding.

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook: Receptionists
• US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2025
• Job Bank (Government of Canada) — Wages for Receptionists