Payroll Specialist salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL

Pay in Miami-Fort Lauderdale against Florida and the US

Pay is more spread out here than nationally: the top tenth earns $78,960 or more, 2.6 times the bottom tenth, against 2.1 times across the US. Two offers for the same title can sit far apart. The middle half of payroll specialists in Miami-Fort Lauderdale earns $46,680–$65,990. The mean ($57,070) is no higher than the median, so few high earners skew the figures here. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $19,310 wide, between the figure for Florida ($18,720) and the US figure ($21,610).

What to budget for a payroll specialist here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $8,540 a year in pay and about $11,019 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $10,770 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale, and the Florida statewide median of $51,910 falls between the 25th percentile and the median.

What a hire really costs in Miami-Fort Lauderdale

At the $57,450 median, a local hire costs about $74,129 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $16,679 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale

Of the 17 roles we track in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, this one ranks #9 by median pay, between sales development representatives ($62,090) and bookkeepers ($50,300). Project Coordinator is the highest at $98,720.

Measured against the US median, payroll specialists rank #6 of the 17 roles we track in Miami-Fort Lauderdale (-1.4%), between paralegals (-1.3%) and medical administrative assistants (-1.9%). The typical role here is at -2.9%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Payroll specialists hold 0.8% of the jobs in the 16 of these roles with a job count in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, 1.0% across Florida and 1.0% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Florida

Across the 22 areas of Florida with data for this job, the median runs from $40,580 in the North Florida nonmetro area to $59,560 in Naples-Marco Island, a gap of $18,980 a year. No other area in Florida has as many payroll specialists, and 20 of the other 21 pay less.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Miami-Fort Lauderdale is #7 of 482 US areas, one of the ten largest markets for this job. Outside Florida, Provo-Orem and Harrisburg-Carlisle pay just above Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Rochester and Billings just below. All four are within $150 a year of the median in Miami-Fort Lauderdale. Of the three markets with about as many payroll specialists, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

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