Recruiter salary in Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA

Pay in Kingsport-Bristol against Tennessee and the US

Recruiters at the 90th percentile earn $110,750, 2.7 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.7. The middle half of recruiters in Kingsport-Bristol earns $49,150–$87,420. The mean ($71,520) is 11% 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 $38,270 wide, between the figure for Tennessee ($31,310) and the US figure ($40,770).

What to budget for a recruiter here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $22,800 a year in pay and about $29,419 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $15,470 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 Kingsport-Bristol, and the Tennessee statewide median of $67,370 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Kingsport-Bristol

At the $64,620 median, a local hire costs about $83,381 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $18,761 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 Kingsport-Bristol

Of the 17 roles we track in Kingsport-Bristol, this one ranks #4 by median pay, between marketing specialists ($65,420) and office managers ($60,690). Project Coordinator is the highest at $87,290.

Measured against the US median, recruiters rank #10 of the 17 roles we track in Kingsport-Bristol (-14.9%), between data entry specialists (-14.9%) and administrative assistants (-16.2%). The typical role here is at -14.9%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Recruiters hold 4.6% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Kingsport-Bristol, 5.9% across Tennessee and 5.8% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Tennessee

Across the 14 areas of Tennessee with data for this job, the median runs from $59,820 in Morristown to $70,460 in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area, a gap of $10,640 a year. Of the 6 areas in Tennessee with more recruiters than Kingsport-Bristol, 2 pay less: Chattanooga, TN-GA ($61,660) and the North Central Tennessee nonmetro area ($60,710).

Kingsport-Bristol against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Kingsport-Bristol is #235 of 521 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Tennessee, Hickory-Lenoir and Jacksonville pay just above Kingsport-Bristol and Kalamazoo-Portage and Paducah just below. All four are within $120 a year of the median in Kingsport-Bristol. Of the three markets with about as many recruiters, two pay more.

Questions

Sources

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