Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs File Clerks: $49K vs $44K Median Pay

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs File Clerks: what changes?

Consider Court, Municipal, and License Clerks if you want to perform clerical duties for courts of law, municipalities, or governmental licensing agencies and bureaus. Consider File Clerks if you would rather file correspondence, cards, invoices, receipts, and other records in alphabetical or numerical order or according to the filing system used. Both list high school diploma or equivalent; compare training and prior experience separately.

Try this next: Compare three local entry-level postings for Court, Municipal, and License Clerks and File Clerks. List the duties, credentials, prior experience, and paid training each employer actually asks for. Try a supervised class or sample project from each field before choosing a program.

BLS 2025 wages and 2025–2035 projections. National medians are not starting offers. Occupation size is not a count of vacancies. View the BLS data.

Compare the practical differences

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

National median pay (2025): $48,700
Route into the job: High school diploma or equivalent; More than 12 months of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: More than 12 months of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.
Work to investigate: Evaluate information on applications to verify completeness and accuracy and to determine whether applicants are qualified to obtain desired licenses.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 17,100

Know before you choose

Review the full career brief for day-to-day working conditions.

See the full Court, Municipal, and License Clerks brief

File Clerks

National median pay (2025): $43,600
Route into the job: High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
Prior related experience: No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
Training and licensing: One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.
Work to investigate: Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 5,600

Know before you choose

BLS projects employment to shrink 15.8% from 2025 to 2035. Openings can still occur when existing workers leave.

See the full File Clerks brief

How the national numbers differ

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on projected growth

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks is at 3.4% projected growth, compared with -15.8% projected growth for File Clerks.

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on annual openings

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks is at 17,100 annual openings, compared with 5,600 annual openings for File Clerks.

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on median pay

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks is at $48,700, compared with $43,600 for File Clerks.

57.2/ 100

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

33.8/ 100

File Clerks

Each available metric is ranked from 0 to 100 against the careers on ChooseField. The weighted average uses this profile: pay 30%, growth 25%, openings 30%, preparation level 15%. Missing values are not scored as zero; their weights are redistributed across available metrics. Occupation size has zero weight: employment is not accessible vacancies. Preparation categories do not measure admission difficulty or years without earnings. The score summarizes national measures; local opportunities and personal fit still need separate consideration.

Detailed evidence

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs File Clerks

Dimension	Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	File Clerks
Median pay (2025)	$48,700	$43,600
Pay percentile	29.1 percentile	15.8 percentile
Projected growth (2025–2035)	3.4%	-15.8%
Annual openings (2025–2035)	17,100	5,600
2025 employment	187,000	76,200
How you qualify	High school diploma or equivalent; More than 12 months of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing	High school diploma or equivalent; One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing
O*NET preparation group	Job Zone 2	Job Zone 2
Related work experience	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.	No prior related occupation is typically required; employer requirements vary.
On-the-job training	More than 12 months of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.	One month or less of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.

The table reports national benchmarks and reviewed work descriptions. It does not rate personal suitability, job security, or physical safety.

Read Court, Municipal, and License Clerks brief Read File Clerks brief

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs File Clerks: what changes?

The facts most likely to affect your decision

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

File Clerks

How the national numbers differ

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on projected growth

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on annual openings

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks has the edge on median pay

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs File Clerks

Try another comparison

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks

File Clerks vs Office Machine Operators, Except Computer