Customer Support Specialist salary in Dubuque, IA

Pay in Dubuque against Iowa and the US

The middle half of customer support specialists in Dubuque earns $40,410–$56,670. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $61,690, only 1.7 times the bottom tenth, against 2.0 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $16,260 wide, between the figure for Iowa ($17,000) and the US figure ($14,910).

What to budget for a customer support specialist here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $10,000 over the median, the 25th only $6,260 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $12,903 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 $44,770 falls between the 25th percentile and the median in Dubuque, and the Iowa statewide median of $46,090 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Dubuque

At the $46,670 median, a local hire costs about $60,219 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $13,549 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

Our open customer support specialist roles pay $700–$1,000 a month under a direct contract. The one-time fee is $2,500³ with a 180-day replacement; paying through Deel adds $49 a month⁴. Change any number below to match your plan.

A local hire here costs about 4.5 times as much as a remote hire in year one at the midpoint of our range. From year two, when the fee drops out, it is 5.6 times the remote figure of $10,788. About the candidates: most apply through our assessment platform with a written and a spoken English task; each profile shows the English level (B1–C2); Silkstaff interviews every shortlisted candidate live, in English, before you meet them.

Other roles in Dubuque

Of the 15 roles we track in Dubuque, this one ranks #10 by median pay, between bookkeepers ($47,630) and administrative assistants ($45,430). Project Coordinator is the highest at $104,690.

Measured against the US median, this job is the best paid of the 15 roles we track in Dubuque (+4.2%); payroll specialists come last (-24.0%). The typical role here is at -11.4%, so, measured against the US, customer support specialists cost more in Dubuque than the area's general pay level would suggest. Customer support specialists hold 32.0% of the jobs in these 15 roles in Dubuque, 22.3% across Iowa and 16.6% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Iowa

Across the 12 areas of Iowa with data for this job, the median runs from $39,530 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls to $48,880 in Des Moines-West Des Moines, a gap of $9,350 a year. Of the 4 areas in Iowa with more customer support specialists than Dubuque, 3 pay less: Cedar Rapids, IA ($45,510), Davenport-Moline, IA-IL ($39,950) and the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area ($40,810).

Dubuque against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Dubuque is #196 of 520 US areas for this job. It is a mid-sized market, and its pay is in the top quarter of US areas. Outside Iowa, Helena and San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles pay just above Dubuque and Boise City and Waterbury-Shelton just below. All four are within $80 a year of the median in Dubuque. Of the three markets with about as many customer support specialists, none pays as much.

Questions

Sources

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