Office Manager salary in Wilmington, NC

Pay in Wilmington against North Carolina and the US

Office managers at the 90th percentile earn $92,060, 2.1 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.3. The middle half of office managers in Wilmington earns $49,530–$76,850. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $27,320 wide, against $28,070 across North Carolina and $29,140 nationally: employers in Wilmington pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an office manager here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $16,420 over the median, the 25th only $10,900 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $21,187 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 $69,500 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Wilmington, and the North Carolina statewide median of $62,340 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Wilmington

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 $17,544 to the $60,430 median and brings it to $77,974 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 Wilmington

Of the 17 roles we track in Wilmington, this one ranks #7 by median pay, between executive assistants ($62,930) and paralegals ($56,060). Project Coordinator is the highest at $89,120.

Measured against the US median, office managers rank #14 of the 17 roles we track in Wilmington (-13.1%), between project coordinators (-12.9%) and customer support specialists (-14.9%). The typical role here is at -10.9%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Office managers hold 6.3% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Wilmington, 6.8% across North Carolina and 9.1% nationally. The job is a smaller 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 $54,150 in the Western North Carolina nonmetro area to $68,450 in Durham-Chapel Hill, a gap of $14,300 a year. Of the 9 areas in North Carolina with more office managers than Wilmington, 4 pay less, the largest of them the Eastern North Carolina nonmetro area ($58,020), the Western North Carolina nonmetro area ($54,150) and the Central North Carolina nonmetro area ($58,240).

Wilmington against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Wilmington is #189 of 517 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside North Carolina, Sandusky and Springfield pay just above Wilmington and Waterloo-Cedar Falls and Muncie just below. All four are within $130 a year of the median in Wilmington. Of the three markets with about as many office managers, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

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