Office Manager salary in Columbia, SC

Pay in Columbia against South Carolina and the US

Office managers at the 90th percentile earn $95,560, 2.2 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.3. The middle half of office managers in Columbia earns $49,080–$79,560. The mean ($67,600) 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 $30,480 wide, wider than in South Carolina as a whole ($30,080) and the US ($29,140), so what a office manager earns in Columbia depends more on the employer.

What to budget for an office manager here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $17,330 a year in pay and about $22,361 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $13,150 in pay. 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 Columbia, and the South Carolina statewide median of $62,920 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Columbia

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 $18,067 to the $62,230 median and brings it to $80,297 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 Columbia

Of the 17 roles we track in Columbia, this one ranks #5 by median pay, between recruiters ($67,990) and paralegals ($57,220). Project Coordinator is the highest at $85,260.

Measured against the US median, office managers rank #8 of the 17 roles we track in Columbia (-10.5%), between payroll specialists (-10.3%) and recruiters (-10.5%). The typical role here is at -10.5%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Office managers hold 12.8% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Columbia, 10.7% across South Carolina and 9.1% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in South Carolina

Across the 11 areas of South Carolina with data for this job, the median runs from $58,590 in Sumter to $65,910 in Charleston-North Charleston, a gap of $7,320 a year. No other area in South Carolina has as many office managers, and 7 of the other 10 pay less.

Columbia against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Columbia is #49 of 517 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 South Carolina, Crestview-Fort Walton Beach and Wichita pay just above Columbia and Great Falls and Kokomo just below. All four are within $220 a year of the median in Columbia. Of the three markets with about as many office managers, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

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