Marketing Specialist salary in Dubuque, IA

Pay in Dubuque against Iowa and the US

The middle half of marketing specialists in Dubuque earns $51,340–$79,920. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $107,210, only 2.8 times the bottom tenth, against 3.6 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($69,410) is 13% 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 $28,580 wide, against $35,670 across Iowa and $49,960 nationally: employers in Dubuque pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a marketing specialist here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $18,260 over the median, the 25th only $10,320 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $23,561 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 $78,760 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Dubuque, and the Iowa statewide median of $66,390 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Dubuque

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 $17,901 to the $61,660 median and brings it to $79,561 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 marketing 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 Dubuque

Of the 15 roles we track in Dubuque, this one ranks #6 by median pay, between sales development representatives ($61,970) and executive assistants ($60,360). Project Coordinator is the highest at $104,690.

Measured against the US median, marketing specialists rank #14 of the 15 roles we track in Dubuque (-21.7%), between executive assistants (-21.2%) and payroll specialists (-24.0%). The typical role here is at -11.4%, so, measured against the US, marketing specialists cost less in Dubuque than the area's general pay level would suggest. Marketing specialists hold 5.6% of the jobs in these 15 roles in Dubuque, 6.6% across Iowa and 5.7% nationally. That is close to the national mix.

Other areas in Iowa

Across the 12 areas of Iowa with data for this job, the median runs from $56,230 in Sioux City to $76,580 in Des Moines-West Des Moines, a gap of $20,350 a year. Of the 9 areas in Iowa with more marketing specialists than Dubuque, 3 pay less: the Northwest Iowa nonmetro area ($56,920), Ames, IA ($61,100) and the Northeast Iowa nonmetro area ($59,710).

Dubuque against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Dubuque is #256 of 514 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Iowa, Fargo and Sierra Vista-Douglas pay just above Dubuque and College Station-Bryan and Cleveland just below. All four are within $80 a year of the median in Dubuque. Of the three markets with about as many marketing specialists, two pay more.

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Sources

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