Payroll Specialist salary in Austin-Round Rock, TX

Pay in Austin-Round Rock against Texas and the US

Payroll specialists at the 90th percentile earn $80,860, 2.1 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.1. The middle half of payroll specialists in Austin-Round Rock earns $48,590–$72,260. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $23,670 wide, wider than in Texas as a whole ($18,720) and the US ($21,610), so what a payroll specialist earns in Austin-Round Rock depends more on the employer.

What to budget for a payroll specialist here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $12,630 a year in pay and about $16,297 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $11,040 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 25th percentile and the median in Austin-Round Rock, and the Texas statewide median of $54,090 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Austin-Round Rock

At the $59,630 median, a local hire costs about $76,942 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $17,312 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 Austin-Round Rock

Of the 17 roles we track in Austin-Round Rock, this one ranks #9 by median pay, between sales development representatives ($62,900) and bookkeepers ($54,320). Project Coordinator is the highest at $102,390.

Measured against the US median, payroll specialists rank #3 of the 17 roles we track in Austin-Round Rock (+2.4%), between bookkeepers (+7.2%) and marketing specialists (+2.2%). The typical role here is at +0.1%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Payroll specialists hold 0.6% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Austin-Round Rock, 0.8% across Texas and 1.0% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Texas

Across the 30 areas of Texas with data for this job, the median runs from $40,810 in McAllen-Edinburg to $60,230 in Dallas-Fort Worth, a gap of $19,420 a year. Of the 3 areas in Texas with more payroll specialists than Austin-Round Rock, 2 pay less: Houston-Pasadena, TX ($54,090) and San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX ($50,830).

Austin-Round Rock against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Austin-Round Rock is #35 of 482 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job and one of the better-paying ones. Outside Texas, Wausau and Reno pay just above Austin-Round Rock and Grand Island and Detroit-Warren just below. All four are within $90 a year of the median in Austin-Round Rock. Of the three markets with about as many payroll specialists, one pays more.

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Sources

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