Administrative Assistant salary in Kankakee, IL

Pay in Kankakee against Illinois and the US

The middle half of administrative assistants in Kankakee earns $37,120–$53,960. The top tenth earns $63,240 or more, 1.9 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 2.0 times. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $16,840 wide, against $22,130 across Illinois and $19,170 nationally: employers in Kankakee pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $9,220 a year in pay and about $11,897 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $7,620 in pay. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $47,540 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Kankakee, and the Illinois statewide median of $48,310 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Kankakee

At the $44,740 median, a local hire costs about $57,729 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $12,989 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for administrative assistants we answer within one business day whether we can help. Enter the monthly pay you have in mind to compare it with a local hire. The fee field shows our standard fee³; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool⁴.

Other roles in Kankakee

Of the 13 roles we track in Kankakee, this one ranks #9 by median pay, between bookkeepers ($47,240) and customer support specialists ($40,490). Project Coordinator is the highest at $95,790.

Measured against the US median, this job is the best paid of the 13 roles we track in Kankakee (-5.9%); marketing specialists come last (-28.8%). The typical role here is at -11.9%, so, measured against the US, administrative assistants cost more in Kankakee than the area's general pay level would suggest. Administrative assistants hold 17.1% of the jobs in these 13 roles in Kankakee, 12.7% across Illinois and 11.3% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Illinois

Across the 12 areas of Illinois with data for this job, the median runs from $37,040 in the South Illinois nonmetro area to $51,880 in Bloomington, a gap of $14,840 a year. Of the 10 areas in Illinois with more administrative assistants than Kankakee, 4 pay less, the largest of them the South Illinois nonmetro area ($37,040), the West Central Illinois nonmetro area ($41,150) and the East Central Illinois nonmetro area ($43,870).

Kankakee against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Kankakee is #444 of 520 US areas for this job. The market is small, and its pay sits near the middle of the US range. Outside Illinois, Fort Wayne and York-Hanover pay just above Kankakee and Burlington and Prescott Valley-Prescott just below. All four are within $130 a year of the median in Kankakee. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, one pays more.

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How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.