What does it cost to hire a receptionist in the UK?

A full-time receptionist costs a UK employer £28,183 a year on the median salary, once £2,952 of employer National Insurance and £553 of pension contributions are added, before recruitment, cover for 28 days of holiday, and the equipment and training the person needs. The Office for National Statistics puts the median at £24,678 a year in its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for 2025 (Table 14.7a, occupation group 4216, receptionists). Half of full-time receptionists earn between £22,124 and £28,730.

How much is a receptionist paid?

ASHE is a 1% sample of HMRC's PAYE records, so it describes pay as paid, for the tax year to 5 April 2025 and for people in the job for more than a year. The 2025 edition is provisional and the next is expected in October 2026. Two things matter for a practice. The group covers every kind of receptionist, so a dental receptionist who also handles NHS forms or a veterinary receptionist who handles the insurance claims may sit above the median in your town; adverts nearby are the check. And many reception jobs are part-time: the median for all receptionist jobs, part-time included, is £18,152, so the hours you are hiring for change the sum more than anything else on this page.

What does a practice pay on top of the salary?

• Employer National Insurance. In the 2026 to 2027 tax year it is 15% of what the employee earns above £5,000 a year, so £2,952 on the median full-time salary. The Employment Allowance lets an eligible practice take up to £10,500 off its annual employer NI bill. A single-handed practice with one nurse and one receptionist may pay almost none of this.

• Pension. The automatic enrolment minimum is 3% of qualifying earnings, the band between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, which is £553 on the median.

• Holiday. At least 5.6 weeks a year, 28 days for a five-day week, bank holidays included if the practice chooses. A desk cannot be left empty for 28 days, so those weeks are paid for twice: in the salary and in whoever sits there instead.

• Recruitment. The CIPD's Resourcing and talent planning report 2026 puts the median cost per hire at £2,000 for employees below senior management, a survey median from a small sample of 223 employers. It counts the time of whoever does the hiring, which in a practice is usually the practice manager's.

• The rest. Sick pay, a uniform, a licence for the practice software, and the weeks of shadowing before someone can run the desk alone on a Monday morning.

The on-costs of any other post are in what it costs to employ someone in the UK.

What does a receptionist do in a practice?

The National Careers Service describes the job as greeting visitors, answering enquiries in person, by phone and online, managing bookings and appointments, dealing with post and deliveries, and taking payments. In a dental practice the same person also chases the recall list, finds a patient for the gap at 2.40 and asks for the medical history form that has not come back. In a veterinary practice the desk is the phone, the waiting room and the till at once, with the insurance claims and the booster reminders waiting behind it. In a physiotherapy, optometry or aesthetics clinic it is the insurer's authorisation number, the consent form and the enquiry that came in on Sunday night.

The desk is the job, and the queue behind it is what the receptionist never gets to. It is the queue, not the desk, that makes a practice think it needs a second person.

Can AI do part of a receptionist's job?

An AI worker can take much of that queue. It works to a written role, with access agreed with you to the systems the practice already runs, and a person checks its work. It can take on the diary work behind the desk, sending recall invitations, confirmations and reminders and filling cancellations from a waiting list; the reply to a web enquiry about private treatment while it is fresh, with the questions the practice would ask first; the chasing of forms that are due before the appointment, medical histories, consent and questionnaires; the statements and reminders for outstanding balances and insurer invoices; and, for a vet, the booster and health plan reminders that otherwise wait for a quiet hour. Each is a defined task with a record of what was sent, to whom and when.

What stays at the desk?

The desk itself stays with a person: the patient standing at it, the owner with a dog on the lead, the signing in and the payment at the till. So does the phone. Answering calls live is a separate role, set up with you as a voice line. Nothing in this article assumes it. Anything clinical goes straight to the dentist, the vet or the clinician: an AI worker never advises a patient or an owner, decides who is seen first, or quotes a treatment or a price it has not been given.

Do you need a second receptionist?

Count the hours in the week you are hiring for. If the desk is full from eight to six and the queue is still growing, a person covers the desk and something that does not need the desk handles the queue. If the desk is quiet for hours and the hire is really for the chasing, an AI worker may be the hire. How AI staff compare with hiring an administrator sets the two side by side, the general sum is in what it costs to hire an administrator, and what an AI worker is explains how one is managed. Our starting price is on the homepage.

An AI worker could take much of the queue behind your desk, scoped with you, and the people at the desk, the phone and anything clinical would stay with your receptionist and your clinicians. Which queue grows faster, the one behind your desk or the one in front of it? Talk to our agent.