Payroll Specialist salary in St. Louis, MO-IL

Pay in St. Louis against Missouri and the US

Payroll specialists at the 90th percentile earn $81,260, 2.2 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.1. The middle half of payroll specialists in St. Louis earns $47,100–$68,490. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $21,390 wide, between the figure for Missouri ($21,040) 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 $9,300 a year in pay and about $12,000 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $12,090 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 St. Louis, and the Missouri statewide median of $54,080 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in St. Louis

At the $59,190 median, a local hire costs about $76,374 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $17,184 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 St. Louis

Of the 17 roles we track in St. Louis, this one ranks #9 by median pay, between sales development representatives ($60,860) and bookkeepers ($49,970). Project Coordinator is the highest at $100,510.

Measured against the US median, payroll specialists rank #2 of the 17 roles we track in St. Louis (+1.6%), between customer support specialists (+2.3%) and medical administrative assistants (-0.7%). The typical role here is at -2.8%, so, measured against the US, payroll specialists cost more in St. Louis than the area's general pay level would suggest. Payroll specialists hold 1.2% of the jobs in these 17 roles in St. Louis, 1.2% across Missouri and 1.0% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Missouri

Across the 12 areas of Missouri with data for this job, the median runs from $43,610 in Cape Girardeau to $59,190 in St. Louis, a gap of $15,580 a year. No other area in Missouri has as many payroll specialists, and all 11 others pay less.

St. Louis against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, St. Louis is #23 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 Missouri, Salisbury and Champaign-Urbana pay just above St. Louis and Cleveland and Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie just below. All four are within $80 a year of the median in St. Louis. 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.