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Office Supervisor

$69,500
median / year
$45,610 – $104,710
what most earn per year (10th–90th percentile)

What the job actually is

Coordinate and oversee clerical staff, assign daily work, and keep an office's paperwork and records running.

You may also see this posted as: Accounting Manager, Customer Service Manager, Customer Service Supervisor, Office Manager, Accounts Payable Supervisor, Accounts Receivable Manager.

Where you work

Offices across nearly every industry

The hours

Regular weekday business hours

The day to day

What you'd actually spend time doing

  • Supervise the work of office, administrative, or customer service employees to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures, correcting errors or problems.
  • Resolve customer complaints or answer customers' questions regarding policies and procedures.
  • Provide employees with guidance in handling difficult or complex problems or in resolving escalated complaints or disputes.
  • Review records or reports pertaining to activities such as production, payroll, or shipping to verify details, monitor work activities, or evaluate performance.
  • Discuss job performance problems with employees to identify causes and issues and to work on resolving problems.

Good fit if you like…

Enterprising

leading, persuading, selling, or turning an idea into action

Conventional

organizing information, following systems, and getting details right

Social

helping, teaching, caring for, or supporting other people

O*NET job zone 3 of 5

Medium preparation—often vocational training, an associate degree, or substantial experience—is usually needed.

Work styles that matter most

DependabilityLeadership OrientationCooperationSocial Orientation

Software that shows up in the work

Examples employers report—not a checklist you must already know.

Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Office softwareMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft PowerPointAdobe AcrobatApple macOS

By the numbers

May 2025 BLS wage & employment data · 2024–34 BLS employment projections.

Median pay
$69,500
per year
Hourly median
$33.41
per hour
What most earn
$45,610–$104,710
yearly, 10th to 90th percentile
Openings a year
~144,500
projected, 2024–34
Outlook to 2034
-0.3%
Little change
Working in the U.S.
1,436,680
people, nationwide

Openings a year counts new jobs plus the ones that open when people retire or move on — a truer picture of your odds than growth alone.

“Median” means half earn more and half earn less. Your city, employer, and years on the job move it a lot — that is what the 10th-to-90th range shows.

BLS estimates 0.7% of workers in this occupation are self-employed.

What it pays in your state

Statewide medians are a better starting point than the national number. Your city and experience still matter.

BLS state wage tables

How you get in

Typical starting education

High school / no degree

Training path: Promoted from support staff.

Related work experience: Less than 5 years.

On-the-job training: None.

License or certification

No license required to start in most places.

You can earn while you train. This field has a genuinely paid pathway in — an apprenticeship, a paid academy, or employer-funded training — so you draw a paycheck instead of taking on debt to learn it.

Check the path where you live

Licensing rules and available programs change by state. These federal tools take you to the current official listings.

What it takes

Team coordinationSchedulingClear communicationOffice software

The honest take

A step up from the desk, coordinating a team of clerks — steady, though headcount is holding flat.

Standard Occupational Classification 43-1011. Pay and employment from the BLS May 2025 OEWS survey; outlook and openings from the 2024–34 employment projections; tasks, interests, work styles, software examples, and job zone from O*NET 30.3. See something off? Tell us.