6 free templates for general, medical, and legal offices, with the FLSA non-exempt guidance and a BLS pay range the generic templates skip. Covers office clerk, clerical worker, and administrative clerk too. Download as DOCX.
A clerical assistant keeps an office organized: the filing, the data entry, the phones, the mail, and the steady stream of paperwork that every business generates. It is one of the most common entry-level office hires, and it goes by many names, including office clerk, clerical worker, and administrative clerk, all describing the same routine administrative support. Hiring one well comes down to two things the generic templates skip: the FLSA classification, which for this role is a clear-cut non-exempt call, and a realistic pay range.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the small offices that handle hiring themselves, where the owner or office manager writes the posting between everything else. The six templates below cover the role across general, medical, and legal settings, with the FLSA classification and pay guidance competitors leave out. For the fundamentals behind any posting, the guide to writing a job description is a useful companion.
TL;DR
A clerical assistant handles routine office work: filing, data entry, phones, mail, and document prep. The role is non-exempt and hourly, so overtime applies for hours over 40 a week, a clear-cut classification because routine clerical work fails the administrative exemption's discretion test. The closest federal occupation reports a median wage of $20.97 an hour (about $43,600 a year). The title is interchangeable with office clerk, clerical worker, and administrative clerk. Download six templates as DOCX, for general, medical, and legal offices, with FLSA and pay guidance built in.
What a Clerical Assistant Does
A clerical assistant handles the routine administrative work that keeps an office running: filing and organizing records, data entry, answering phones, sorting mail, preparing documents, and supporting staff with day-to-day tasks. The work is recurring and detail-oriented, the backbone of daily office operations.
The closest federal occupation is general office clerks, who perform a variety of clerical tasks including answering telephones, typing documents, and filing records. The role is the entry point of the administrative career path, a step below the administrative assistant, and it often reports to an office manager. The specific duties shift with the setting, which the templates below reflect.
Clerical Assistant Duties and Responsibilities
Clerical assistant duties cluster into four areas: records and filing, data entry, phones and reception, and mail and supplies. A strong job description picks the specific responsibilities from each area that match your office, rather than listing every possible task.
Records and filing
File and organize physical and digital records
Maintain accurate records and databases
Prepare, copy, and scan documents
Data entry
Enter and update data accurately
Verify and correct data
Prepare routine reports
Phones and reception
Answer and route phone calls
Take and relay messages
Greet and direct visitors
Mail and supplies
Sort and distribute incoming mail
Prepare outgoing mail and packages
Order and restock office supplies
The mix shifts with the setting: scheduling and insurance in a medical office, case files in a law office, general support in a standard office. For a structured way to scope the role, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Clerical Assistant vs Related Titles
The clerical role goes by many names, and a couple of nearby titles describe a step up. Knowing which is which helps you pick the right title and set the right pay and classification before posting.
Title
What it means
Relationship
Clerical Assistant
Routine office support
The role on this page
Office Clerk / Clerical Worker
Same routine support
Interchangeable synonyms
Administrative Clerk
Records and data focus
Near-synonym, covered here
Administrative Assistant
More autonomy and coordination
A step up the career path
The clerical titles all describe the same routine support and are covered by the templates here. When the role grows into scheduling, coordination, and real discretion, it becomes an administrative assistant, and a more senior version becomes a secretary or office coordinator. Choose the title that matches the real scope.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by your setting. The core structure is the same across all six, but each one emphasizes the duties and compliance notes that fit a specific kind of office, from a general office to a medical front desk to a law firm.
General Clerical Assistant
Any office
The universal baseline: filing, data entry, phones, mail, and document prep for a general office. Start here and adapt to your setting.
Medical Clerical Assistant
Front desk
The medical-office version: patient check-in, scheduling, insurance verification, records, and HIPAA-aware paperwork.
Legal Clerical Assistant
Law office
The law-office version: case-document filing, intake paperwork, court-document handling, deadlines, and confidentiality.
Administrative Clerk
Records and data
The records-focused version: processing paperwork, maintaining databases, data entry, and routine reports.
Entry-Level Clerical Assistant
First office job
The entry-level version: filing, data entry, and phones with paid on-the-job training. No experience required.
First Clerical Hire
Owner's first hire
The version no competitor offers: a small business's first clerical hire who takes routine office work off the owner's plate.
Match the Template to Your Setting
General office: General Clerical Assistant. Medical or dental front desk: Medical Clerical Assistant. Law office: Legal Clerical Assistant. A records and data role: Administrative Clerk. A first office job with training: Entry-Level. A small business making its first administrative hire: First Clerical Hire. All are non-exempt and hourly.
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: company and job summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, compensation, and how to apply, with an EEO statement. Fill in the brackets and post.
Download All 6 Job Description Templates
General, medical, legal, administrative clerk, entry-level, and first clerical hire. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: General Clerical Assistant
The universal baseline: filing, data entry, phones, mail, and document prep for a general office. Start here and adapt to your setting.
[As the owner, I am spending too much time on filing, data entry, and paperwork
instead of running the business. This is our first clerical hire. You will take
the routine office work off my plate so I can focus on customers and growth.]
JOB SUMMARY
[Company Name] is hiring its first Clerical Assistant to take administrative work
off the owner's plate. You will handle filing, data entry, phones, mail, and
paperwork, and set up simple systems to keep our small office organized as we
grow. A reliable, organized person who likes bringing order is ideal.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Handle filing, data entry, and document preparation
•Answer phones, take messages, and manage mail
•Keep records and simple office systems organized
•Process routine paperwork and forms
•Order supplies and manage office basics
•Take recurring admin work off the owner's plate
•Help wherever the small office needs support
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
•High school diploma or equivalent
•[Some office experience helpful; not required]
•Organized, reliable, and detail-oriented
•Comfortable wearing a few hats at a small company
•Willing to set up and improve simple systems
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Pay range: $_____ to $_____ per hour (non-exempt; overtime over 40 hours)
To apply, send your resume to __.
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer.
FLSA, Overtime, and Pay Transparency
This is the part the generic templates skip, and for a clerical assistant it is refreshingly clear: the role is non-exempt, so overtime applies, and a few setting-specific obligations round it out. Get these right and your posting attracts the right candidates and keeps your business compliant.
FLSA: a clerical assistant is non-exempt and owed overtime
The most important compliance fact about this role is the simplest: a clerical assistant is non-exempt, which means hourly pay and overtime at one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a week. The administrative exemption has three prongs, and clerical work fails the third. It requires a salary at or above the federal threshold, a primary duty of office work related to business operations, and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Routine clerical duties, filing, data entry, answering phones, and sorting mail, do not involve that kind of independent judgment, so the role does not qualify as exempt. The Department of Labor's own guidance states that workers performing mechanical, repetitive, or routine work are usually not exempt. Treat the role as non-exempt, pay overtime, and track hours. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where the line is: clerk versus administrative assistant
The non-exempt status does not change as the title gets fancier, but the line is worth understanding. A clerical assistant or clerk does routine, recurring work under direction and is non-exempt. An administrative assistant who takes on real discretion, like managing a calendar with authority, handling confidential business matters, or making decisions on matters of significance, may approach the administrative exemption, though many administrative assistants are also non-exempt. The point is that the classification turns on the actual duties and the level of independent judgment, not the job title. For a routine clerical role, non-exempt is the correct and safe call. When the role grows into genuine administrative responsibility, revisit the classification based on what the person actually does. This is general information, not legal advice.
Pay transparency: post an hourly range
A growing number of states require a salary or wage range in job postings, and several thresholds are low enough to reach small employers. For a clerical assistant, post a good-faith hourly range rather than an annual salary, since the role is hourly and non-exempt. A remote or hybrid posting open to applicants in states with transparency laws can trigger those rules regardless of where the company is based, so including a range is the safer practice. Beyond compliance, a posted hourly range improves candidate quality and saves time on both sides, since clerical pay is fairly transparent in the market already. Confirm the rules for the states you hire in. This is general information, not legal advice.
Setting-specific duties: HIPAA in medical, confidentiality in legal
While the core role is the same, the setting adds obligations worth naming in the posting. In a medical office, a clerical assistant handles patient records and scheduling, so plan for HIPAA privacy training and clear expectations about protecting patient information. In a law office, the role touches confidential client and case files, so a confidentiality expectation and possibly an agreement make sense. In a general office the bar is lower, but any role that handles sensitive records benefits from a clear confidentiality expectation. Naming these in the job description sets the right tone and filters for candidates who take them seriously. Match the compliance note to your setting. This is general information, not legal advice.
Clerical Work Is Non-Exempt by Design
The administrative exemption requires the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Routine clerical work, filing, data entry, phones, and mail, does not meet that test, so a clerical assistant is non-exempt and owed overtime for hours over 40 a week. The Department of Labor's guidance is explicit that routine, repetitive work is usually not exempt.
For more on how the classification works, the Fair Labor Standards Act overview explains the exemption tests and why routine roles like this one are non-exempt and overtime-eligible.
Skills and Requirements
Clerical hiring rewards reliability and attention to detail over formal credentials, which makes stating the real requirements concretely the job of the posting. Keep the bar appropriate to an entry-level role.
Requirement
What to look for
Education
High school diploma or equivalent
Experience
Some office experience helpful; entry-level welcome
Core skills
Filing, data entry, and accurate record keeping
Software
Comfortable with email and basic office software
Reliability
Punctual, dependable, and detail-oriented
Classification
Non-exempt, hourly; overtime over 40 hours a week
Keep the posting neutral and inclusive, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on a protected characteristic, and the SHRM guide covers the standard sections of a job description.
Clerical Assistant Pay
Clerical assistants are paid hourly, with pay varying by setting and region. Set your range using government data as a baseline, then adjust for your local market.
Median $20.97 an Hour (BLS, May 2024)
The closest federal occupation, general office clerks, had a median hourly wage of $20.97 as of the May 2024 data, about $43,600 a year, with the lowest 10 percent under $14.00 an hour and the highest 10 percent over $30.69 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Pay tends to run higher in legal and insurance offices and lower in general settings.
Because the role is non-exempt, budget for overtime when hours exceed forty in a week, and post a good-faith hourly range where required. Employment of general office clerks is projected to decline about 7 percent from 2024 to 2034 as routine paperwork gets automated, but with roughly 282,400 openings a year from turnover, small offices still hire steadily. National compensation surveys can help calibrate a range for your setting.
Hiring a Clerical Assistant for a Small Office
A clerical assistant is often a small office's first dedicated administrative hire, the point where filing and paperwork start eating into the owner's or providers' time. Here is how to write the posting for that reality, and the small-office realities the generic templates miss.
The clerical assistant is often a small office's first administrative hire
For many small offices, the clerical assistant is the first person hired specifically to handle administrative work. A medical or dental practice, a small law firm, an insurance agency, an accounting office, or a general business reaches a point where filing, data entry, scheduling, and paperwork are eating into the owner's or the providers' time. That is exactly the small-business hire this role represents, and it is squarely in the five-to-fifty-employee range. The generic templates do not speak to that moment. The templates here include a first-clerical-hire version written for it, framed around taking routine office work off the owner's plate, so a small business can post a description that fits its size rather than a large-employer civil-service one.
Match the title and template to the setting, since the role has many names
Clerical assistant, office clerk, clerical worker, administrative clerk, and office assistant are largely interchangeable titles for the same entry-level administrative support role, which is why this page covers them as one. What actually changes the job is the setting. A medical front desk adds patient scheduling and privacy, a law office adds case files and confidentiality, and a general office keeps it to filing, data entry, phones, and mail. Rather than agonize over the exact title, pick the template that matches your setting, general, medical, or legal, and adjust the duties to your office. The title on the posting matters less than a clear, accurate duties list that tells candidates what the day actually looks like.
Onboarding a clerical hire is straightforward people operations done right
A clerical assistant is usually a straightforward W-2 hire, and getting onboarding right the first time saves repeated effort, especially since clerical roles can see turnover. It means a signed offer letter with the non-exempt, hourly classification stated clearly, the new hire paperwork including the I-9 and tax forms, any setting-specific training like HIPAA in a medical office, and a simple first-day checklist for systems and access. FirstHR fits this people side for a small business: e-signature for the offer letter, document management for signed forms and records, task workflows for the onboarding checklist, and an employee database and org chart to place the role. To be clear about scope, FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, and it does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with those. Applicant tracking is coming soon.
The job description is step one. Once a candidate accepts, the same document becomes the basis for the offer and onboarding, starting with the new hire paperwork. Because clerical roles are usually straightforward W-2 hires that can see turnover, a smooth, repeatable process pays off every time you hire.
Send the offer
Confirm the role, hourly pay, the non-exempt classification, and the start date in writing. An offer letter template makes this fast.
Collect paperwork
I-9, tax forms, and any setting-specific acknowledgments like HIPAA in a medical office, gathered before day one.
Set up day one
A simple first-day checklist: systems access, a desk, office procedures, and who to ask for help.
Store the records
Keep the signed offer, the I-9, and training acknowledgments organized and easy to find in one system.
Once your offer is ready, the offer letter template handles the next step, and an onboarding template gives the new hire a structured start. FirstHR connects the offer, paperwork, e-signatures, and document management in one place, so a small office can manage the full process from job description to a fully onboarded clerical hire. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, and it does not run payroll or administer benefits, so connect those separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Clerical assistant, office clerk, clerical worker, and administrative clerk are interchangeable titles for the same routine office-support role.
Use the template that matches the setting: general office, medical front desk, or law office.
The role is non-exempt and hourly; overtime applies for hours over 40 a week, because routine clerical work fails the administrative exemption's discretion test.
The closest federal occupation reports a median wage of $20.97 an hour, about $43,600 a year; post a good-faith hourly range.
Medical settings add HIPAA expectations and legal settings add confidentiality; name these in the posting.
The occupation is slowly declining nationally, but small offices still hire clerical support regularly, with software handling more of the routine paperwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a clerical assistant do?
A clerical assistant handles the routine administrative work that keeps an office running: filing and organizing records, data entry, answering and routing phone calls, sorting and distributing mail, preparing and copying documents, greeting visitors, and ordering supplies. The work is hands-on, detail-oriented, and recurring, providing the day-to-day support that lets the rest of the team focus on their jobs. The exact mix varies by setting. In a medical office, a clerical assistant schedules patients and verifies insurance; in a law office, the role handles case files and intake paperwork; in a general office, it centers on filing, data entry, phones, and mail. The shared core is reliable, organized support of an office's administrative functions. The federal occupation that best matches the role is general office clerks.
Is a clerical assistant exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
A clerical assistant is non-exempt, which means hourly pay and overtime at one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a week. The administrative exemption requires a salary at or above the federal threshold, a primary duty of office work related to business operations, and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. Routine clerical duties, filing, data entry, answering phones, and sorting mail, do not involve that kind of independent judgment, so the role fails the third prong and does not qualify as exempt. The Department of Labor's guidance states that workers who perform mechanical, repetitive, or routine work are usually not exempt. This is a clear-cut classification: treat a clerical assistant as non-exempt, pay overtime, and track hours. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between a clerical assistant and an office clerk?
There is essentially no difference; clerical assistant and office clerk are interchangeable titles for the same entry-level administrative support role. Other names for the same work include clerical worker, administrative clerk, general clerk, and office assistant. All describe routine office support: filing, data entry, phones, mail, and document handling. Employers use whichever title fits their preference or industry, and the federal wage data tracks them together under general office clerks. The practical takeaway is to not over-think the title. Choose the one that fits your office, then write a clear duties list and name the setting, general, medical, or legal, so candidates understand the actual job. The title matters far less than an accurate description of the day-to-day work. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between a clerical assistant and an administrative assistant?
The difference is the level of responsibility and judgment. A clerical assistant does routine, recurring office work, filing, data entry, phones, and mail, under direction, and is non-exempt. An administrative assistant typically takes on more, such as managing calendars, coordinating meetings, handling correspondence, and exercising more independent judgment, and sits a step up the career path. In practice, a clerical assistant who grows into scheduling, coordination, and real discretion is moving toward an administrative assistant role. The classification can shift too: while clerical roles are clearly non-exempt, some administrative assistant roles with genuine discretion may approach the administrative exemption, though many remain non-exempt. Match the title and pay to the actual scope, and use the clerical templates for routine support and an administrative assistant description for a more advanced role. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a clerical assistant make?
Clerical assistants are paid hourly, with pay varying by setting and region. The best-matching federal occupation, general office clerks, had a median hourly wage of $20.97 as of the May 2024 data, which works out to roughly $43,600 a year, with the lowest 10 percent under $14.00 an hour and the highest 10 percent over $30.69. Pay tends to run higher in legal and insurance offices and somewhat lower in general healthcare and small general offices. Because clerical roles are non-exempt, remember to budget for overtime when hours exceed forty in a week. Set your hourly range using the government data as a baseline, then adjust for your local market and the demands of your setting, and post a good-faith range where required. This is general information, not legal advice.
What skills does a clerical assistant need?
Clerical assistant hiring rewards reliability, organization, and attention to detail over formal credentials. Core skills include accurate filing and record keeping, data entry, basic computer and office-software proficiency, clear written and verbal communication, phone etiquette, and the ability to follow procedures consistently. Reliability and punctuality matter as much as any technical skill, since the role is the backbone of daily office operations. For specialized settings, add familiarity with scheduling and records systems in a medical office or document and case-file handling in a law office. A high school diploma is typical, and most clerical assistants learn their specific duties on the job within the first month. Prioritize dependable, detail-oriented candidates who communicate clearly over a long résumé. This is general information, not legal advice.
What should a clerical assistant job description include?
A strong clerical assistant job description names the setting up front, general, medical, or legal, and includes a short company overview, a job summary, and responsibilities grouped into records and filing, data entry, phones and reception, and mail and supplies. It should state the non-exempt, hourly classification and a good-faith pay range, list the schedule including any part-time hours, and name the high school diploma and any setting-specific expectations like HIPAA in a medical office or confidentiality in a law office. The additions that generic templates skip and that matter most are the FLSA classification stated correctly and the pay range, which most competitor templates omit. Close with an equal opportunity statement and clear apply instructions. Matching the template to your setting attracts the right candidates. This is general information, not legal advice.
Are clerical assistant jobs being phased out?
The occupation is slowly declining but is not disappearing, and small offices still hire clerical assistants regularly. Federal projections show employment of general office clerks declining about 7 percent from 2024 to 2034, driven by automation, AI, and electronic filing. At the same time, around 282,400 openings are projected each year over the decade, almost entirely to replace workers who move to other jobs or leave the workforce. So while the long-term trend is downward at the national level, the day-to-day reality for a small medical, legal, or general office is that clerical support is still needed and still hired. For a small business, the practical move is to write a clear, accurate job description and to lean on software to handle the routine paperwork the role used to do manually. This is general information, not legal advice.
