Compensation and Benefits Managers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 21% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 73% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 25% of the time, stays with people.
Plan, direct, or coordinate compensation and benefits activities of an organization.
22,940 people do this job in the US. $149,230 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on8 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet22 h
- Stays with people10 h
Compensation and Benefits Managers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 8 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 22 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 10 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Identify and implement benefits to increase the quality of life for employees by working with brokers and researching benefits issues (about 2 h); Develop methods to improve employment policies, processes, and practices, and recommend changes to management (about 2 h); Study legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining contracts to assess industry trends (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 75%
- 25%
- 0%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 1%. Today's estimate: 21%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 361st largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 22 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.076% to 0.031% (released February and March 2025); 0.01% to 0.031% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.011% to 0.011% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.076% | 213 of 708 | 8 of 22 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.031% | 353 of 703 | 8 of 22 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.01% | 449 of 655 | 5 of 22 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.035% | 294 of 672 | 7 of 22 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.031% | 325 of 677 | 7 of 22 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 345 of 434 | 1 of 22 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 361 of 447 | 1 of 22 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates almost none of this job's working time as physical work, so robots do not reach it.
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Develop methods to improve employment policies, processes, and practices, and recommend changes to management.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 16% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1 work week | 28%Half by Apr 2027 | |
| Identify and implement benefits to increase the quality of life for employees by working with brokers and researching benefits issues.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 13% | 1.3 work days2.5 h to 4.2 work days | 36%Half by Feb 2027 | |
| Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations.Done daily by most who do it. | 12% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.3 work days | Stays with people | |
| Manage the design and development of tools to assist employees in benefits selection, and to guide managers through compensation decisions.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.3 work weeks | 18%Half by Jul 2027 | |
| Formulate policies, procedures and programs for recruitment, testing, placement, classification, orientation, benefits and compensation, and labor and industrial relations.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 3.3 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 10%Half by Sep 2027 | |
| Design, evaluate, and modify benefits policies to ensure that programs are current, competitive, and in compliance with legal requirements.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 7% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.4 work weeks | 17%Half by Aug 2027 | |
| Administer, direct, and review employee benefit programs, including the integration of benefit programs following mergers and acquisitions.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 6% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 2.1 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Analyze compensation policies, government regulations, and prevailing wage rates to develop competitive compensation plan.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.4 work weeks | 17%Half by Aug 2027 | |
| Study legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining contracts to assess industry trends.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 4% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 3.1 work days | 48%Half by now | |
| Direct preparation and distribution of written and verbal information to inform employees of benefits, compensation, and personnel policies.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare detailed job descriptions and classification systems and define job levels and families, in partnership with other managers.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 6.7 h2.5 h to 3.1 work days | 61%Half by now | |
| Analyze statistical data and reports to identify and determine causes of personnel problems, and develop recommendations for improvement of organization's personnel policies and practices.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1.3 work weeks | 24%Half by May 2027 |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Compensation, Benefits, and Job Analysis Specialists43% now, 80% by 2028
- Human Resources Specialists63% now, 69% by 2028
- Human Resources Managers39% now, 60% by 2028
- Labor Relations Specialists33% now, 54% by 2028
- Financial Managers52% now, 83% by 2028
- Equal Opportunity Representatives and Officers51% now, 87% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
- Management of Companies and Enterprises5,500 people
- Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities2,130 people
- Local Government, excluding Schools and Hospitals910 people
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services890 people
- Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services770 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Compensation and Benefits Managers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 21% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 73% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (58% to 75% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Compensation and Benefits Managers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Identify and implement benefits to increase the quality of life for employees by working with brokers and researching benefits issues (36% of the task's time now, 99% by the end of 2028); Develop methods to improve employment policies, processes, and practices, and recommend changes to management (28% of the task's time now, 99% by the end of 2028); and Study legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining contracts to assess industry trends (48% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Compensation and Benefits Managers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations; Administer, direct, and review employee benefit programs, including the integration of benefit programs following mergers and acquisitions; and Direct preparation and distribution of written and verbal information to inform employees of benefits, compensation, and personnel policies. Together such tasks are about 25% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Compensation and Benefits Managers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks, the 361st largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 22 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Compensation and Benefits Managers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds almost none of the working time is physical work, so robots do not reach it.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 22 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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