Marketing Specialist salary in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

Pay in Durham-Chapel Hill against North Carolina and the US

Marketing specialists at the 90th percentile earn $178,870, 3.6 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 3.6. The middle half of marketing specialists in Durham-Chapel Hill earns $62,400–$138,530. The mean ($107,080) is 15% 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 $76,130 wide, wider than in North Carolina as a whole ($51,380) and the US ($49,960), so what a marketing specialist earns in Durham-Chapel Hill depends more on the employer.

What to budget for a marketing specialist here

The step from the 25th percentile to the median is $30,710 a year; from the median to the 75th it is $45,420, or about $58,606 once benefits are added. 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 25th percentile and the median in Durham-Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina statewide median of $78,410 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Durham-Chapel Hill

At the $93,110 median, a local hire costs about $120,142 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $27,032 here. 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 Durham-Chapel Hill

Of the 17 roles we track in Durham-Chapel Hill, this one ranks #2 by median pay, after project coordinators ($104,870); accountants come next at $85,090.

Measured against the US median, this job is the best paid of the 17 roles we track in Durham-Chapel Hill (+18.2%); paralegals come last (-16.5%). The typical role here is at +0.2%, so, measured against the US, marketing specialists cost more in Durham-Chapel Hill than the area's general pay level would suggest. Marketing specialists hold 7.3% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Durham-Chapel Hill, 5.9% across North Carolina and 5.7% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in North Carolina

Across the 18 areas of North Carolina with data for this job, the median runs from $57,730 in Fayetteville to $93,110 in Durham-Chapel Hill, a gap of $35,380 a year. All 2 areas in North Carolina with more marketing specialists than Durham-Chapel Hill pay less, among them Charlotte-Concord, NC-SC ($82,930) and Raleigh-Cary, NC ($78,980).

Durham-Chapel Hill against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Durham-Chapel Hill is #49 of 514 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job and one of the better-paying ones. Outside North Carolina, Boulder and Minneapolis-St. Paul pay just above Durham-Chapel Hill and Worcester and Colorado Springs just below. Of the three markets with about as many marketing specialists, none pays as much.

Questions

Sources

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