Administrative Assistant salary in Rockford, IL

Pay in Rockford against Illinois and the US

The middle half of administrative assistants in Rockford earns $38,980–$56,840. The top tenth earns $68,140 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 $17,860 wide, against $22,130 across Illinois and $19,170 nationally: employers in Rockford pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $10,710 a year in pay and about $13,819 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $7,150 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 Rockford, and the Illinois statewide median of $48,310 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Rockford

At the $46,130 median, a local hire costs about $59,523 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $13,393 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 Rockford

Of the 17 roles we track in Rockford, this one ranks #11 by median pay, between bookkeepers ($46,790) and medical administrative assistants ($46,010). Project Coordinator is the highest at $94,690.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #4 of the 17 roles we track in Rockford (-3.0%), between data entry specialists (-2.3%) and customer support specialists (-3.4%). The typical role here is at -5.4%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Administrative assistants hold 12.1% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Rockford, 12.1% across Illinois and 10.8% nationally. That is close to the national mix.

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 6 areas in Illinois with more administrative assistants than Rockford, 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).

Rockford against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Rockford is #241 of 520 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Illinois, Akron and Pueblo pay just above Rockford and Cleveland and Greenville-Anderson just below. All four are within $20 a year of the median in Rockford. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, none pays as much.

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Sources

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