Bookkeeper salary in the South Illinois nonmetro area

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

The middle half of bookkeepers in the South Illinois nonmetro area earns $37,700–$53,800. The top tenth earns $62,980 or more, 2.0 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 2.1 times. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $16,100 wide, against $17,450 across Illinois and $17,950 nationally: employers in the South Illinois 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 $8,200 a year in pay and about $10,581 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $7,900 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 South Illinois nonmetro area, and the Illinois statewide median of $49,560 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the South 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 $13,239 to the $45,600 median and brings it to $58,839 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 South Illinois nonmetro area

Of the 16 roles we track in the South Illinois nonmetro area, this one ranks #11 by median pay, between HR assistants ($47,130) and data entry specialists ($41,400). Project Coordinator is the highest at $91,680.

Measured against the US median, bookkeepers rank #4 of the 16 roles we track in the South Illinois nonmetro area (-10.0%), between HR assistants (-6.9%) and project coordinators (-10.4%). The typical role here is at -16.6%, so, measured against the US, bookkeepers cost more in the South Illinois nonmetro area than the area's general pay level would suggest. Bookkeepers hold 12.2% of the jobs in the 15 of these roles with a job count in the South Illinois nonmetro area, 8.6% across Illinois and 8.9% 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 $45,220 in Bloomington to $51,440 in Chicago-Naperville, a gap of $6,220 a year. All 5 areas in Illinois with more bookkeepers than the South Illinois nonmetro area also pay more, among them Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN ($51,440) and the West Central Illinois nonmetro area ($45,760).

the South Illinois nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the South Illinois nonmetro area is #200 of 521 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Illinois, Dalton and Abilene pay just above the South Illinois nonmetro area and Manhattan and Rome just below. All four are within $30 a year of the median in the South Illinois nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many bookkeepers, all three pay more.

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Sources

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