Office Manager salary in Ames, IA

Pay in Ames against Iowa and the US

Office managers at the 90th percentile earn $96,010, 2.1 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.3. The middle half of office managers in Ames earns $52,560–$78,470. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $25,910 wide, against $29,000 across Iowa and $29,140 nationally: employers in Ames pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an office manager here

The step from the 25th percentile to the median is $13,860 a year; from the median to the 75th it is $12,050, or about $15,548 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 $69,500 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Ames, and the Iowa statewide median of $64,400 falls between the 25th percentile and the median.

What a hire really costs in Ames

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 $19,283 to the $66,420 median and brings it to $85,703 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 office managers 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 Ames

Of the 16 roles we track in Ames, this one ranks #4 by median pay, between recruiters ($70,060) and sales development representatives ($63,230). Project Coordinator is the highest at $97,290.

Measured against the US median, office managers rank #5 of the 16 roles we track in Ames (-4.4%), between customer support specialists (-4.4%) and project coordinators (-4.9%). The typical role here is at -6.4%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Office managers hold 6.1% of the jobs in these 16 roles in Ames, 7.5% across Iowa and 9.1% nationally. The job is a smaller 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 $57,940 in the Northeast Iowa nonmetro area to $71,690 in Des Moines-West Des Moines, a gap of $13,750 a year. Of the 11 areas in Iowa with more office managers than Ames, 9 pay less, the largest of them Davenport-Moline, IA-IL ($63,020), the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area ($62,440) and Cedar Rapids, IA ($63,730).

Ames against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Ames is #489 of 517 US areas for this job. The market is small, and its pay sits near the middle of the US range. Outside Iowa, Lawrence and Reading pay just above Ames and La Crosse-Onalaska and El Centro just below. All four are within $150 a year of the median in Ames. Of the three markets with about as many office managers, none pays as much.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-13.