Marketing Specialist salary in Louisville, KY-IN

Pay in Louisville against Kentucky and the US

The middle half of marketing specialists in Louisville earns $49,090–$81,190. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $103,650, only 2.7 times the bottom tenth, against 3.6 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($70,050) is 11% 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 $32,100 wide, between the figure for Kentucky ($30,340) and the US figure ($49,960).

What to budget for a marketing specialist here

The step from the 25th percentile to the median is $14,190 a year; from the median to the 75th it is $17,910, or about $23,110 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 median and the 75th percentile in Louisville, and the Kentucky statewide median of $61,480 falls between the 25th percentile and the median.

What a hire really costs in Louisville

At the $63,280 median, a local hire costs about $81,652 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $18,372 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 Louisville

Of the 17 roles we track in Louisville, this one ranks #6 by median pay, between executive assistants ($63,380) and paralegals ($61,270). Project Coordinator is the highest at $82,660.

Measured against the US median, marketing specialists rank #16 of the 17 roles we track in Louisville (-19.7%), between project coordinators (-19.2%) and sales development representatives (-21.1%). The typical role here is at -5.6%, so, measured against the US, marketing specialists cost less in Louisville than the area's general pay level would suggest. Marketing specialists hold 3.4% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Louisville, 3.2% across Kentucky and 5.7% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Kentucky

Across the 10 areas of Kentucky with data for this job, the median runs from $48,420 in the East Kentucky nonmetro area to $65,280 in Lexington-Fayette, a gap of $16,860 a year. No other area in Kentucky has as many marketing specialists, and 7 of the other 9 pay less.

Louisville against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Louisville is #57 of 514 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 Kentucky, Duluth and Pensacola-Ferry Pass pay just above Louisville and Pittsburgh and Oklahoma City just below. All four are within $120 a year of the median in Louisville. Of the three markets with about as many marketing specialists, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

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