Payroll Specialist salary in Albuquerque, NM

Pay in Albuquerque against New Mexico and the US

The middle half of payroll specialists in Albuquerque earns $46,200–$63,800. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $71,020, only 1.8 times the bottom tenth, against 2.1 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $17,600 wide, against $19,090 across New Mexico and $21,610 nationally: employers in Albuquerque pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a payroll specialist here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $9,410 a year in pay and about $12,142 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $8,190 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 $58,260 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Albuquerque, and the New Mexico statewide median of $53,230 falls between the 25th percentile and the median.

What a hire really costs in Albuquerque

At the $54,390 median, a local hire costs about $70,181 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $15,791 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 payroll 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 Albuquerque

Of the 17 roles we track in Albuquerque, this one ranks #9 by median pay, between sales development representatives ($57,910) and data entry specialists ($53,320). Project Coordinator is the highest at $106,730.

Measured against the US median, payroll specialists rank #11 of the 17 roles we track in Albuquerque (-6.6%), between paralegals (-5.6%) and customer support specialists (-6.7%). The typical role here is at -4.5%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Payroll specialists hold 0.6% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Albuquerque, 0.9% across New Mexico and 1.0% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in New Mexico

Across the 4 areas of New Mexico with data for this job, the median runs from $54,390 in Albuquerque to $59,980 in the Eastern New Mexico nonmetro area, a gap of $5,590 a year. No other area in New Mexico has as many payroll specialists, and none of the others pays less.

Albuquerque against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Albuquerque is #76 of 482 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 New Mexico, Fond du Lac and Atlantic City-Hammonton pay just above Albuquerque and Owensboro and Asheville just below. All four are within $170 a year of the median in Albuquerque. Of the three markets with about as many payroll specialists, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

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