Data Entry Specialist salary in Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA

Pay in Des Moines-West Des Moines against Iowa and the US

Data entry specialists at the 90th percentile earn $61,340, 1.8 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 1.9. The middle half of data entry specialists in Des Moines-West Des Moines earns $41,030–$56,610. The mean ($46,590) is 9% 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 $15,580 wide, wider than in Iowa as a whole ($13,350) and the US ($12,650), so what a data entry specialist earns in Des Moines-West Des Moines depends more on the employer.

What to budget for a data entry specialist here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $14,030 over the median, the 25th only $1,550 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $18,103 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 $41,340 falls between the 25th percentile and the median in Des Moines-West Des Moines, and the Iowa statewide median of $43,640 falls between the median and the 75th percentile.

What a hire really costs in Des Moines-West Des Moines

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 $12,362 to the $42,580 median and brings it to $54,942 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 data entry specialists 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 Des Moines-West Des Moines

Of the 17 roles we track in Des Moines-West Des Moines, this one ranks #15 by median pay, between e-commerce order specialists ($43,010) and medical administrative assistants ($42,160). Project Coordinator is the highest at $101,150.

Measured against the US median, data entry specialists rank #3 of the 17 roles we track in Des Moines-West Des Moines (+3.0%), between office managers (+3.2%) and payroll specialists (+0.6%). The typical role here is at -1.1%, so, measured against the US, data entry specialists cost more in Des Moines-West Des Moines than the area's general pay level would suggest. Data entry specialists hold 1.0% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Des Moines-West Des Moines, 0.9% across Iowa and 0.8% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Iowa

Across the 10 areas of Iowa with data for this job, the median runs from $38,960 in Davenport-Moline to $45,520 in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, a gap of $6,560 a year. No other area in Iowa has as many data entry specialists, and 3 of the other 9 pay less.

Des Moines-West Des Moines against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Des Moines-West Des Moines is #49 of 389 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job, with pay near the middle of the US range. Outside Iowa, Portland-Vancouver and Washington-Arlington pay just above Des Moines-West Des Moines and Champaign-Urbana and Omaha just below. All four are within $260 a year of the median in Des Moines-West Des Moines. Of the three markets with about as many data entry specialists, none pays as much.

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