Virtual receptionist in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area: cost vs in-house

Pay in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area against Iowa and the US

The middle half of virtual receptionists in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area earns $30,320–$43,660. The top tenth earns $46,440 or more, 1.9 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 1.7 times. The mean ($36,210) 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 $13,340 wide, wider than in Iowa as a whole ($10,480) and the US ($11,170), so what a virtual receptionist earns in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area depends more on the employer.

What to budget for a virtual receptionist here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $7,330 a year in pay and about $9,458 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $6,010 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 $38,010 falls between the median and the 75th percentile in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area, and the Iowa statewide median of $37,330 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area

Pay is only part of it. Benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², which adds about $10,547 to the $36,330 median and brings it to $46,877 a year. 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 virtual receptionists 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 the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area

Virtual receptionists have the lowest median of the 17 roles we track in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area; project coordinators have the highest, at $84,430.

Measured against the US median, virtual receptionists rank #4 of the 17 roles we track in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area (-4.4%), between data entry specialists (-2.6%) and bookkeepers (-8.0%). The typical role here is at -10.2%, so, measured against the US, virtual receptionists cost more in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area than the area's general pay level would suggest. Virtual receptionists hold 3.7% of the jobs in these 17 roles in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area, 3.4% across Iowa and 5.7% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Iowa

Across the 12 areas of Iowa with data for this job, the median runs from $35,170 in Ames to $38,830 in Dubuque, a gap of $3,660 a year. Of the 2 areas in Iowa with more virtual receptionists than the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area, 1 pays less: Davenport-Moline, IA-IL ($36,170).

the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area is #316 of 521 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Iowa, Palm Bay-Melbourne and Lake Havasu City-Kingman pay just above the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area and Cleveland and South Bend-Mishawaka just below. All four are within $40 a year of the median in the Southeast Iowa nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many virtual receptionists, one pays more.

Questions

Sources

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