Administrative Assistant salary in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area

Pay in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area against Illinois and the US

Administrative assistants at the 90th percentile earn $62,180, 2.0 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.0. The middle half of administrative assistants in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area earns $36,740–$51,430. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $14,690 wide, against $22,130 across Illinois and $19,170 nationally: employers in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $7,280 a year in pay and about $9,394 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $7,410 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 the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area, and the Illinois statewide median of $48,310 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area

Pay is only part of it. Benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², which adds about $12,818 to the $44,150 median and brings it to $56,968 a year. 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 the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area

Of the 17 roles we track in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area, this one ranks #12 by median pay, between medical administrative assistants ($44,620) and paralegals ($43,960). Project Coordinator is the highest at $96,420.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #8 of the 17 roles we track in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area (-7.1%), between project coordinators (-5.8%) and e-commerce order specialists (-7.4%). The typical role here is at -7.4%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Administrative assistants hold 17.5% of the jobs in these 17 roles in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area, 12.1% across Illinois and 10.8% 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 5 areas in Illinois with more administrative assistants than the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area, 3 pay less: the South Illinois nonmetro area ($37,040), the West Central Illinois nonmetro area ($41,150) and the East Central Illinois nonmetro area ($43,870).

the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area is #194 of 520 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Illinois, Wildwood-The Villages and Traverse City pay just above the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area and Blacksburg-Christiansburg and Michigan City-La Porte just below. All four are within $50 a year of the median in the Northwest Illinois nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

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