Medical Coder Starting Salary: What CPC-A and Entry-Level Coders Earn

BLS’ published wage table for the occupation has no starting-wage line — it runs in percentiles from a 10th to a 90th — so the closest published figures for new coders are the table’s lowest percentiles.

The occupation those percentiles describe is medical records specialists, SOC 29-2072 — the closest available group BLS publishes for coders, and one whose count also includes medical records staff who do not code.

In May 2025 the occupation’s 10th percentile was $37,000 a year ($17.79 an hour), the 25th percentile was $43,490, and the median — the midpoint for the whole occupation, not a starting figure — was $51,140.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook frames the same spread: the lowest 10 percent earned less than $37,000 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $81,150.

AAPC’s side of the picture comes from its 2026 salary report (published February 2, 2026), built on its 2025 Salary Survey of more than 20,000 self-reported responses from AAPC membership, where respondents with 0–1 years on the job averaged $45,377.

Two caveats keep that survey figure in context.

AAPC’s averages describe its own membership, which reported a median of 13.7 years in the industry.

Its “medical records specialist” bucket also covers billers, auditors, practice managers and compliance officers, so AAPC and BLS figures describe different populations rather than two estimates of the same job.

On the way in, BLS says medical records specialists typically need a postsecondary certificate — some qualify with a high school diploma, and others might need an associate’s or bachelor’s degree — and that employers may prefer certified applicants or expect certification shortly after hire.

New to the work itself?

The medical coder career guide covers what the job involves and how first hires happen.

The entry percentiles above are one slice of the occupation; the site’s medical coder salary page lays out the full national tables by percentile.

CPC-A is AAPC’s apprentice designation: pass the CPC exam without two years of coding experience and the “A” stays attached to the credential until that experience requirement is met.

For pay, the apprentice status shows up in AAPC’s 2025 state salary data as a gap.

In Texas, AAPC’s state data show CPC-A holders averaging $48,773 against $69,212 for CPC holders.

In New York, the same state data show $58,000 for CPC-A holders versus $77,611 for CPCs.

Read both as state-level survey averages drawn from small samples.

The AAPC pages our research reviewed publish CPC-A figures by state only — we did not find a national CPC-A average — so treat the two states as illustrations of the gap rather than a national benchmark.

The certified-versus-not split AAPC does publish nationally points the same direction: certified respondents averaged $67,260 against $55,721 for non-certified, 20.7% more.

That cut is certified versus non-certified, not CPC versus CPC-A specifically.

For hourly framing, AAPC’s CPC page says CPCs make between $23 and $32 per hour, varying by location, experience and additional credentials.

BLS’ clearest first-job signal is its industry split, because the percentiles are published by setting.

In May 2025, medical records specialists’ 10th and 25th percentiles ran $39,530 and $47,370 in hospitals against $35,320 and $39,160 in offices of physicians — the lowest rungs sit visibly higher on the facility side.

Whole-occupation medians run the same direction: $59,120 in hospitals versus $47,120 in offices of physicians.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook’s industry list adds context around them: management of companies and enterprises $60,980, hospitals $59,120, administrative and support services $49,490, offices of physicians $47,120, and professional, scientific and technical services $46,800.

Payer-side coding shows up in the same tables at insurance carriers, where the occupation’s median was $62,650 across 3,820 OEWS jobs; outpatient care centers posted a median of $50,900.

Two cautions apply.

The industry medians describe the whole occupation in each setting, not first-year pay.

And OEWS counts payroll employees, so self-employed and 1099 coders sit outside these figures.

One pattern holds across the facility, corporate and payer-side settings above: each posts higher figures than offices of physicians, which makes the setting of a first coding job the clearest lever in these published tables.

AAPC’s survey tracks average income by years on the job, and the early rungs are visible in it.

From first-year respondents to the 31-plus group is a 77.3% difference.

Those are survey averages across a membership, not a raise schedule — no employer walks a coder up the table rung by rung.

For a macro benchmark, BLS’ Employment Cost Index put private-industry wages and salaries up 3.1% for the 12 months ending June 2026, and up 3.6% in health care and social assistance — average economy-wide wage growth, not a typical raise.

Job movement shows up in the same survey: 22.5% of AAPC’s 2025 respondents were looking for new employment, and “I want more money” was the top reason for job dissatisfaction.

Still choosing the route in?

How to become a medical coder covers training length, certification timing and the first-job hunt.

The full ladder, as AAPC’s 2025 survey reports it:

AAPC’s 2025 respondents worked remote at scale: 64.8% fully remote, 19.8% fully on-site and 15.4% hybrid.

What no source in our research publishes is a remote-versus-on-site pay gap: the BLS national and industry tables cited above carry no work-arrangement column, and we did not find a remote pay split on AAPC’s public report pages.

So there is no verified figure for a remote entry-level pay difference — treat any specific percentage attached to that claim elsewhere with caution.

One thing the numbers do say: 80.2% of all 2025 respondents worked entirely or partly remotely, so the survey’s averages largely describe remote and hybrid workers.

Our research found no first-year split by work arrangement, so there is no separate remote first-year figure to quote.

The career realities of remote coding — how the work is structured and how new coders get remote roles — are their own topic: can medical coders work from home.

Career information, not coding, billing-compliance, legal, tax or compensation advice; pay figures here come from BLS OEWS (May 2025) and AAPC’s 2025 Salary Survey, and each source’s current figures are worth confirming before you rely on them.