Recruiter salary in Hickory-Lenoir, NC

Pay in Hickory-Lenoir against North Carolina and the US

The middle half of recruiters in Hickory-Lenoir earns $51,790–$80,960. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $102,260, only 2.2 times the bottom tenth, against 2.7 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($70,230) is 9% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $29,170 wide, against $40,060 across North Carolina and $40,770 nationally: employers in Hickory-Lenoir pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a recruiter here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $16,260 a year in pay and about $20,981 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $12,910 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 $75,940 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in Hickory-Lenoir, and the North Carolina statewide median of $73,070 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Hickory-Lenoir

At the $64,700 median, a local hire costs about $83,484 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $18,784 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 recruiters 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 Hickory-Lenoir

Of the 17 roles we track in Hickory-Lenoir, this one ranks #4 by median pay, between marketing specialists ($75,450) and office managers ($60,320). Project Coordinator is the highest at $85,490.

Measured against the US median, recruiters rank #12 of the 17 roles we track in Hickory-Lenoir (-14.8%), between sales development representatives (-14.5%) and customer support specialists (-15.6%). The typical role here is at -12.8%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Recruiters hold 5.3% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Hickory-Lenoir, 6.0% across North Carolina and 5.8% nationally. That is close to the national mix.

Other areas in North Carolina

Across the 18 areas of North Carolina with data for this job, the median runs from $61,660 in Rocky Mount to $81,100 in Durham-Chapel Hill, a gap of $19,440 a year. Of the 11 areas in North Carolina with more recruiters than Hickory-Lenoir, 4 pay less, the largest of them the Central North Carolina nonmetro area ($61,780), the Western North Carolina nonmetro area ($63,710) and the Eastern North Carolina nonmetro area ($64,080).

Hickory-Lenoir against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Hickory-Lenoir is #179 of 521 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside North Carolina, Longview and Cape Coral-Fort Myers pay just above Hickory-Lenoir and Kingsport-Bristol and Kalamazoo-Portage just below. All four are within $140 a year of the median in Hickory-Lenoir. Of the three markets with about as many recruiters, one pays more.

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