Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Public Safety Telecommunicators: $49K vs $53K Median Pay

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Public Safety Telecommunicators: 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 Public Safety Telecommunicators if you would rather operate telephone, radio, or other communication systems to receive and communicate requests for emergency assistance at 9-1-1 public safety answering points and emergency operations centers. 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 Public Safety Telecommunicators. 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

Public Safety Telecommunicators

National median pay (2025): $53,040
Route into the job: High school diploma or equivalent; More than one month and up to 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 one month and up to 12 months of on-the-job training, in addition to any qualifying education or licensing.
Work to investigate: Provide emergency medical instructions to callers.
Annual openings (2025–2035): 9,000

Know before you choose

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

See the full Public Safety Telecommunicators brief

How the national numbers differ

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

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks is at 17,100 annual openings, compared with 9,000 annual openings for Public Safety Telecommunicators.

Public Safety Telecommunicators has the edge on median pay

Public Safety Telecommunicators is at $53,040, compared with $48,700 for Court, Municipal, and License Clerks.

Public Safety Telecommunicators has the edge on projected growth

Public Safety Telecommunicators is at 3.7% projected growth, compared with 3.4% projected growth for Court, Municipal, and License Clerks.

57.2/ 100

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

57.4/ 100

Public Safety Telecommunicators

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 Public Safety Telecommunicators

Dimension	Court, Municipal, and License Clerks	Public Safety Telecommunicators
Median pay (2025)	$48,700	$53,040
Pay percentile	29.1 percentile	38.4 percentile
Projected growth (2025–2035)	3.4%	3.7%
Annual openings (2025–2035)	17,100	9,000
2025 employment	187,000	105,600
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; More than one month and up to 12 months 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.	More than one month and up to 12 months 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 Public Safety Telecommunicators brief

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Public Safety Telecommunicators: what changes?

The facts most likely to affect your decision

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks

Public Safety Telecommunicators

How the national numbers differ

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

Public Safety Telecommunicators has the edge on median pay

Public Safety Telecommunicators has the edge on projected growth

Court, Municipal, and License Clerks vs Public Safety Telecommunicators

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