Marketing Manager Salary Range: Compliant Bands by State (SOC 11-2021)

Why the Same Title Produces Wildly Different Numbers Across Your Postings

Your Denver office posted a marketing manager role last quarter. Your New York counterpart posted the same title two weeks later. A candidate in Seattle applied to both and noticed the ranges didn't match — then emailed your HR inbox asking why.

That question is no longer just awkward. If either posting sits in Colorado, New York, California, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, or Washington D.C., it falls under a pay-transparency statute that requires you to post a salary or salary range — and that range has to be defensible if a regulator or plaintiff's attorney pulls the job ad. "We looked it up" is not documentation of methodology. "We based it on the BLS OEWS national median for SOC 11-2021, adjusted for our San Francisco market, using a 50% spread centered on the 50th percentile" is.

This guide gives you the BLS wage anchors for marketing managers (SOC 11-2021), shows you how to translate those anchors into a compliant posting range, and explains what changes state to state. By the end, you will be able to build a first-draft marketing manager salary range that is grounded in publicly auditable data — ready to document, defend, and post.

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What BLS OEWS Data Tells You (and What It Doesn't)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program produces employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations, built from a sample of approximately 1.1 million establishments (BLS, May 2025). For compliance purposes, OEWS data matters because it is publicly available, methodologically documented, and reproducible — three qualities that matter the moment an attorney or regulator asks how you set the number.

For marketing managers, the relevant occupational code is SOC 11-2021. The May 2024 national estimates are (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2024):

• 10th percentile: $81,900
• Median (50th percentile): $161,030
• 90th percentile: $239,200

A few definitions before we go further:

• Percentile — the wage below which a given share of workers in that occupation earn. The 50th percentile (median) means half of marketing managers nationally earn less than $161,030 and half earn more. The 90th percentile ($239,200) is the BLS top-code — the program caps reported wages at this level, so very high earners are aggregated here rather than reported individually.
• Market median — in compensation practice, this is typically the 50th percentile of the relevant competitive labor market for a given role. It is the most common anchor for setting the midpoint of a salary band.
• Range spread — how wide the band is, expressed as a percentage of the midpoint. A $130,000–$192,000 band centered on $161,000 has a spread of roughly 38%. Wider spreads accommodate more seniority variation; narrower spreads signal tighter role scoping.

These national figures are a starting point, not a final answer. Geographic pay differentials — the difference in competitive wages between, say, a San Francisco Bay Area market and a mid-sized Midwest market — can shift a defensible midpoint by 20–40% relative to the national median. The BLS publishes state- and metro-level OEWS estimates separately; you should pull the state or metro figure for the location where the work will be performed. See How to Read BLS OEWS Data for a step-by-step on navigating the OEWS tables, and Geographic Pay Differentials Explained for the adjustment methodology.

For current, live SOC 11-2021 estimates — national, state, and metropolitan — visit bls.gov/oes directly. The most recent full release at the time of writing is the May 2024 OEWS (national figures above); the May 2025 OEWS national, state, and metro estimates were released May 15, 2026 (BLS, 2026). Confirm the newest live release before posting.

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Building a Marketing Manager Salary Range: The Basic Method

A compliant salary range for a job posting has three components: a minimum, a midpoint, and a maximum. The midpoint is your market anchor — typically the OEWS median for the relevant geography. The minimum and maximum define the spread.

Here is a worked example using the national May 2024 median as the anchor. This is illustrative arithmetic to demonstrate the method — your actual range should use the state- or metro-level median for the location where the role will be performed.

Step 1 — Choose your market anchor. National median for SOC 11-2021: $161,030 (BLS OOH, May 2024). For a role posted in a high-cost market, the relevant state or metro median will likely be higher; confirm at bls.gov/oes.

Step 2 — Choose a range spread. Range spread (also called band width) is the distance from the minimum to the maximum expressed as a percentage of the midpoint. Common practice:

Seniority tier	Typical spread
Marketing Coordinator / Specialist	30–40%
Marketing Manager (mid)	40–50%
Senior Marketing Manager	50–60%
Marketing Director	60–80%

A 50% spread centered on $161,030 means:

• Minimum: $161,030 × 0.75 = $120,773
• Midpoint: $161,030
• Maximum: $161,030 × 1.25 = $201,288

(The 0.75/1.25 multipliers follow from the standard formula: min = midpoint ÷ (1 + spread/2); max = midpoint × (1 + spread/2). This is worked-example arithmetic — round to the nearest $500 or $1,000 for the posting.)

Step 3 — Validate against the BLS percentiles. The national 10th percentile ($81,900) and 90th percentile ($239,200) bracket the full market distribution. If your band minimum sits below the 10th percentile for your geography, you are pricing the role below virtually everyone who holds the title — flag that for review. If your maximum bumps against the 90th percentile, you may be scoping a director-level role as a manager.

Step 4 — Document. Record the data source (BLS OEWS, May 2024, national or state), the geography, the percentile used as your midpoint anchor, the spread methodology, the approval date, and the approver. This documentation is what your employment attorney will ask for first.

For a guided version of this process, see How to Build a Salary Range.

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Marketing Manager Salary Range by State: What the Data Shows

The national median is a useful baseline, but marketing manager compensation varies significantly by state and metro area. The table below provides the national SOC 11-2021 figures from the May 2024 BLS OEWS release as reference anchors. State-level and metro-level figures must be pulled directly from bls.gov/oes — the verified-data library for this guide carries only national figures, and the operator must confirm or replace each row with live state OEWS data before publishing.

Geography	Data source	Median	10th pct	90th pct
United States (national)	BLS OEWS, May 2024, SOC 11-2021	$161,030	$81,900	$239,200
California	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, CA]	—	—	—
New York	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, NY]	—	—	—
Colorado	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, CO]	—	—	—
Washington	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, WA]	—	—	—
Illinois	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, IL]	—	—	—
New Jersey	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, NJ]	—	—	—
Massachusetts	[Pull from bls.gov/oes — SOC 11-2021, MA]	—	—	—

State figures not shown here because this guide's sourced-data library carries only the confirmed national estimate. Fill each row from the OEWS State and Area data tables at bls.gov/oes before publishing. The May 2025 OEWS state release (published May 15, 2026) may provide more recent figures — confirm the newest available.

High-cost metros — the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Seattle, and Boston — routinely carry marketing manager medians well above the national figure. Mid-sized markets in the Midwest and Southeast typically sit below the national median. Running a single national-median range for a remote-eligible role that draws candidates from multiple geographies is a common source of internal pay inequity and of posting ranges that fail the "good faith" defensibility standard regulators look for.

For a deeper treatment of how to apply geographic cost-of-labor adjustments to any salary band, see Geographic Pay Differentials Explained.

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Pay-Transparency Posting Requirements: What Changes by State

If you are posting a marketing manager role in any of the following jurisdictions, a salary or salary range in the posting is not optional. Below are the key parameters for the states most likely to affect your posting; always verify the current rule with the relevant authority or counsel before acting, as effective dates, thresholds, and penalties change.

California — SB 1162 / Labor Code §432.3, effective January 1, 2023: employers with 15 or more employees (at least one in CA) must include the pay scale in the posting. Civil penalty: $100–$10,000 per violation, with each posting treated as a potential separate violation (California Legislative Information, 2022; National Law Review / ArentFox Schiff, 2023). Verify current thresholds and penalty amounts with the California DIR.

New York State — Labor Law §194-B, effective September 17, 2023: employers with 4 or more employees must include a salary range in postings for jobs performed at least in part in New York. Penalty: up to $3,000 per violation (NY State DOL, 2023). See New York Pay Transparency Law for a full walkthrough. Verify current requirements with the NY State DOL.

Colorado — Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, effective January 1, 2021 (amended January 1, 2024): applies to employers with at least one Colorado employee. Fines of $500–$10,000 per violation, each non-compliant posting a separate violation (Colorado General Assembly, SB19-085, 2019). Verify current requirements with the Colorado CDLE.

Washington State — Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, effective January 1, 2023: employers with 15 or more employees must disclose a wage scale or salary range plus a general description of benefits. As of July 27, 2025 amendments: statutory damages $100–$5,000 per applicant, plus attorney fees; L&I civil penalty up to $500 first violation / up to $1,000 subsequent (Epstein Becker Green, 2025; WA L&I, 2025). Verify current requirements with Washington L&I.

Illinois — HB 3129, effective January 1, 2025: employers with 15 or more employees must include pay scale and benefits in postings. Penalties escalate $500 / $2,500 / $10,000 (1st / 2nd / 3rd+ violation), with a 7-day cure period (Illinois DOL, 2025; MMR Ltd. citing HB3129, 2025). Verify current requirements with the Illinois IDOL.

New Jersey — Pay and Benefit Transparency Act, effective June 1, 2025: employers with 10 or more employees (working 20+ calendar weeks) must include pay ranges. Civil penalties: $300 first violation / $600 each subsequent (Ogletree Deakins, 2025; Walsh Pizzi O'Reilly Falanga LLP, 2025). Proposed regulations suggest the spread between minimum and maximum may be no more than 60% of the minimum (Saiber LLC, 2025) — confirm this constraint with the NJ DOL before building your range. Verify current requirements with the New Jersey DOL.

Massachusetts — An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency, effective October 29, 2025: employers with 25 or more Massachusetts employees must disclose pay ranges. Penalties escalate from a warning through up to $25,000 for 4th+ offenses (Greenberg Traurig, 2025; Mintz, 2025). Verify current requirements with the Massachusetts AGO.

Washington D.C. — Wage Transparency Omnibus Amendment Act, effective June 30, 2024: applies to private employers of any size (at least one D.C. employee) and requires disclosure of minimum and maximum projected pay. Civil fines: $1,000 / $5,000 / $20,000 (1st / 2nd / subsequent) (Cooley LLP, 2024; Mercer, 2024). Verify current requirements with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

The through-line across all of these statutes: posting a range without documentation of how you set it is only marginally safer than posting no range. The methodology — data source, release year, geography, percentile anchor, spread calculation — is what makes the range defensible, not just the numbers themselves.

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How Salary Range Builder Fits Into This Workflow

Pulling BLS OEWS data, selecting a geographic file, anchoring a midpoint, calculating spreads for multiple seniority tiers, and formatting the output for a compliant job posting is straightforward in principle. In practice, it is a half-day of work per role the first time you do it, and a recurring task every time the OEWS releases new data or you open a role in a new state.

Salary Range Builder automates the BLS OEWS data pull, the geographic adjustment, and the spread calculation — and produces a documented, watermark-free PDF you can send to counsel or attach to your posting records. If you work across multiple states or manage more than a handful of titles, the Professional plan adds the US geographic-adjustment calculator and range-comparison reports; Business adds multi-location range sets and a pay-equity analytics dashboard. All plans start with a 14-day free trial. See pricing for the full tier comparison.

If you prefer to work through the methodology yourself before committing to a tool, the Salary Range Builder Workbook is a structured Excel workbook that walks you through the BLS OEWS pull, geographic adjustment, and spread calculation for any SOC code — including SOC 11-2021.

For a broader look at how marketing manager pay fits within the full management occupation family, see the Occupation Salary Guides hub or compare with the HR Manager Salary Range guide (SOC 11-3121).

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Start With Defensible Data, Then Document the Method

A compliant marketing manager salary range is not a number you guess, crowdsource from a job-seeker salary site, or copy from a competitor's posting. It is a number you can trace — to a BLS OEWS release, to a geography, to a percentile anchor, to a spread methodology — and document in writing.

The national May 2024 median for SOC 11-2021 is $161,030, with a 10th percentile of $81,900 and a 90th percentile of $239,200 (BLS OOH, May 2024). Your state- or metro-level anchor, which you should pull directly from bls.gov/oes, is the right starting point for any market-specific range. Layer in a spread appropriate to the seniority scope of the role, document the methodology, and you have a posting that is both accurate to your market and defensible under any of the pay-transparency statutes now in effect.

Ready to build a compliant range for every open role — not just this one? Start a 14-day free trial of Salary Range Builder and have your first documented marketing manager salary band ready before your next posting goes live.