Employment
309,518
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541214
NAICS 541214 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Payroll Services - Industry Benchmarks
$66,265/yr average annual pay, with 87 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541214.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 310K
- Workers employed
- $66,265/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $44M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 541214
Texas leads Payroll Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 310K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $66,265/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $44M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Payroll Services
Payroll Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
5,556 establishments employ 309,518 workers (55.7/location) at $66,265/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by Florida and New Jersey.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$66,265/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
5,556
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 30,866; establishment count increased by 76. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $20.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 55.7
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 22,999 |
| Florida | 16,406 |
| New Jersey | 12,668 |
| Pennsylvania | 7,745 |
| Ohio | 5,369 |
| Tennessee | 5,201 |
| Virginia | 4,838 |
| Missouri | 4,032 |
| Washington | 3,569 |
| Maryland | 2,784 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
87
Total Loan Volume
$44M
Avg Loan Size
$511K
Jobs Supported
984
Program Breakdown
7(a) 84 (97%)
504 3 (3%)
Top SBA Lender
United Midwest Savings Bank National Association
6 loans in this industry
New Business Share
23.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 8
2021 14
2022 9
2023 12
2024 13
2025 29
2026 2
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Payroll Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541214 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Payroll Services?
5,556 business establishments. Together they employ 309,518 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Payroll Services?
$66,265/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 55.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Payroll Services employment?
Texas leads with 22,999 workers. Florida (16,406) and New Jersey (12,668) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Payroll Services receive?
Payroll Services businesses received 87 SBA loans totaling $44 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $511K. These loans supported 984 jobs at origination. Most lending (97%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 91% of that same 801-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Payroll Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 5,556 establishments, 309,518 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 87 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 541214 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.