Bookkeeper salary in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area

Pay in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area against Maine and the US

The middle half of bookkeepers in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area earns $44,580–$59,030. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $71,340, only 1.8 times the bottom tenth, against 2.1 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($53,200) is 10% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $14,450 wide, against $15,110 across Maine and $17,950 nationally: employers in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a bookkeeper here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $10,670 over the median, the 25th only $3,780 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $13,768 a year in employer cost. 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 Southwest Maine nonmetro area, and the Maine statewide median of $50,510 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the Southwest Maine 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 $14,040 to the $48,360 median and brings it to $62,400 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 Southwest Maine nonmetro area

Of the 16 roles we track in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area, this one ranks #10 by median pay, between customer support specialists ($48,840) and administrative assistants ($47,790). Project Coordinator is the highest at $94,320.

Measured against the US median, bookkeepers rank #8 of the 16 roles we track in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area (-4.6%), between office managers (-3.8%) and paralegals (-5.9%). The typical role here is at -5.2%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Bookkeepers hold 14.4% of the jobs in these 16 roles in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area, 13.5% across Maine and 8.7% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Maine

Across the 5 areas of Maine with data for this job, the median runs from $47,050 in the Northeast Maine nonmetro area to $54,610 in Portland-South Portland, a gap of $7,560 a year. The one area in Maine with more bookkeepers, Portland-South Portland, ME ($54,610), also pays more.

the Southwest Maine nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the Southwest Maine nonmetro area is #151 of 521 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Maine, Winston-Salem and Memphis pay just above the Southwest Maine nonmetro area and Topeka and Elmira just below. All four are within $40 a year of the median in the Southwest Maine nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many bookkeepers, one pays more.

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Sources

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