Bookkeeper salary in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area

Pay in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area against Michigan and the US

The middle half of bookkeepers in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area earns $38,810–$53,710. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $60,960, only 1.8 times the bottom tenth, against 2.1 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $14,900 wide, against $15,790 across Michigan and $17,950 nationally: employers in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a bookkeeper here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $8,480 a year in pay and about $10,942 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $6,420 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 $50,670 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area, and the Michigan statewide median of $48,980 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the Northern Michigan 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 $13,131 to the $45,230 median and brings it to $58,361 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 bookkeepers 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 Northern Michigan nonmetro area

Of the 17 roles we track in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area, this one ranks #11 by median pay, between HR assistants ($46,240) and e-commerce order specialists ($43,610). Project Coordinator is the highest at $80,840.

Measured against the US median, bookkeepers rank #6 of the 17 roles we track in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area (-10.7%), between customer support specialists (-10.5%) and payroll specialists (-13.0%). The typical role here is at -15.0%, so, measured against the US, bookkeepers cost more in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area than the area's general pay level would suggest. Bookkeepers hold 13.8% of the jobs in these 17 roles in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area, 9.3% across Michigan and 8.7% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Michigan

Across the 19 areas of Michigan with data for this job, the median runs from $45,230 in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area to $51,480 in Detroit-Warren, a gap of $6,250 a year. All 6 areas in Michigan with more bookkeepers than the Northern Michigan nonmetro area also pay more, among them Detroit-Warren, MI ($51,480) and Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI ($48,550).

the Northern Michigan nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the Northern Michigan nonmetro area is #226 of 521 US areas for this job. It is a mid-sized market, and its pay is in the bottom quarter of US areas. Outside Michigan, Jackson and Brunswick-St. Simons pay just above the Northern Michigan nonmetro area and Bloomington and Jefferson City just below. All four are within $50 a year of the median in the Northern Michigan nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many bookkeepers, two pay more.

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Sources

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