Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Salary
The median office and administrative support workers, all other salary in the United States is $45,670 per year ($21.96/hour). Salaries range from $31,090 at the entry level to $71,940+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 192,260 office and administrative support workers, all other jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to decline 7.8% through 2034.
Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Median Salary
$45,670
per year
Hourly Rate
$21.96
per hour
Employment
192,260
jobs in the U.S.
Salary Distribution
10th percentile
$31,090
25th percentile
$34,320
Median
$45,670
75th percentile
$58,460
90th percentile
$71,940
Job Growth (2024-2034)
-7.8%
Decline
Annual Openings
21,300
jobs/year (growth + replacements)
Education Required
High school diploma or equivalent
Training Needed
Short-term on-the-job training
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Career Guide
Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for office and administrative support workers, all others.
This is the catch-all BLS bucket for administrative support roles that don't map to a specific title β records clerks at hospital systems, generalist admin coordinators at universities, correspondence handlers at insurance carriers, filing and scheduling staff at law firms and banks. About 192,260 people work in this bucket. BLS median is $45,670, with the 10th percentile at $31,090 and the 90th at $71,940 β the top of the range is driven by senior admin coordinators at large hospital systems (HCA, Ascension, Kaiser), specialist records staff at BigLaw firms, and long-tenured admin generalists at insurance carriers (Aetna, Cigna) and banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo). Because the role is generalist, comp is anchored to metro, employer type, and years of tenure more than to a single credential.
Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For
Records management & filing systems
Physical and electronic filing, retention schedules, HIPAA-aware records handling at hospitals, legal hold procedures at law firms. Fast, accurate, and audit-ready.
Data entry & document handling accuracy
10-key by touch, 55+ WPM typing, double-entry verification on high-value records. Error rates below 1% are the working benchmark for records-heavy employers like Aetna, Cigna, and the big hospital systems.
Calendar & scheduling coordination
Outlook, Google Calendar, and vendor tools like Doodle or Calendly. Multi-timezone scheduling for executives, court dates, or clinic providers without double-booking.
Microsoft Office & Google Workspace fluency
Word, Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, filters), Outlook, Teams, plus Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive. Excel is the single highest-leverage skill and separates $45k admins from $65k admin coordinators.
Customer & internal phone / email handling
Professional written and verbal communication, tone control on frustrated callers (common at insurance carriers, state agencies, and law firms), template correspondence, escalation routing.
Domain-specific software
Epic or Cerner at hospitals, iManage or NetDocuments at law firms, Guidewire or Duck Creek at insurance carriers, PeopleSoft or Workday at universities and state agencies. Fluency in the employer's platform is a 5-10% pay lever.
Confidentiality & compliance awareness
HIPAA at hospitals and insurance, attorney-client privilege at law firms, FERPA at universities, GLBA at banks. Employers screen out candidates who don't understand why every record matters.
Cross-department coordination
You are the connective tissue β routing requests between departments, chasing signatures, tracking whose court is next. A strong admin generalist reduces friction across an entire office.
How to Become a Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other
- 1Finish high school; associate's degree or admin certificate is a plusA GED plus proven admin experience will get you interviews. An AA in Business Administration or a Medical Office Administration certificate opens hospital and clinic roles at $2-4k higher starting pay.
- 2Build core Microsoft Office and typing proficiencyFree tools: GCFGlobal typing, TypingClub, Microsoft Office training on LinkedIn Learning. Get to 55 WPM with 98% accuracy and comfortable with Excel formulas before applying.
- 3Start in a specific admin seat: receptionist, records clerk, or data entry$31k-$40k. Hospital systems (HCA, Ascension, Kaiser) and state agencies hire heavily at this level. Aim for a large employer with internal promotion paths.
- 4Add a domain: healthcare, legal, insurance, banking, or higher-ed$42k-$55k. Domain-specific software fluency (Epic, iManage, Guidewire, PeopleSoft) is the biggest single pay lever between generalist admin and senior admin coordinator.
- 5Move up to Sr Admin Coordinator, Records Supervisor, or Office Manager$55k-$75k. This tier owns team schedules, vendor relationships, and audit response. Long tenure at a single large employer is the fastest path to the 90th percentile ($71,940).
Career Progression
Admin / Records Clerk (entry)
0-2 yrs$31k-$40k
- β’Data entry, filing (physical and electronic), and mail sorting
- β’Answer inbound phone and email, route to the right department
- β’Support senior admin staff with scheduling and correspondence
- β’Learn the employer's core system (Epic, iManage, Guidewire, PeopleSoft)
Next: Admin Assistant / Office Support Specialist after 1-3 years and a domain focus.
Admin Assistant / Office Support Specialist
2-5 yrs$40k-$50k
- β’Own a book of scheduling for 3-8 attorneys, providers, or executives
- β’Draft routine correspondence, meeting notes, and internal memos
- β’Prepare records for audits, litigation holds, or regulator requests
- β’Manage vendor invoices, expense reports, and procurement submissions
Next: Sr Admin Coordinator at 4-8 years with domain depth.
Sr Admin Coordinator / Executive Admin
5-10 yrs$50k-$62k
- β’Support a director, department, or 8-15 person team end-to-end
- β’Own domain software workflows (Epic scheduling, iManage records, Guidewire policy admin)
- β’Coordinate cross-department projects, onboarding, and vendor renewals
- β’Mentor entry-level admin staff; own team-level SOPs
Next: Office Manager / Records Supervisor at 8-12 years.
Office Manager / Records Supervisor
10-15 yrs$60k-$72k (approaching BLS 90th percentile $71,940)
- β’Own budget, staffing, and vendor contracts for the admin function
- β’Lead audit and regulator response (HIPAA, HITECH, FERPA, GLBA)
- β’Interview, hire, and performance-manage a team of 4-12 admin staff
- β’Own building operations, security badging, and facilities coordination
Next: Director of Administrative Services or Practice Manager at 12-20 years.
Director of Administrative Services / Practice Manager
15+ yrs$70k-$95k (above BLS 90th percentile; large employers only)
- β’Lead the admin function across a multi-site hospital region, BigLaw office, or state agency division
- β’Own the annual admin budget ($1-8M) and vendor procurement
- β’Report to a COO, Managing Partner, or Deputy Commissioner
- β’Represent the organization in compliance and audit workstreams
Next: COO of a small clinic, regional operations lead, or lateral move to program management.
Interview Questions & Answers
5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 17 total plus resume bullets for every level.
Q1. Walk me through how you'd handle a stack of 200 records that need to be filed and cross-indexed by end of day.situational
First, triage by priority β anything on legal hold, HIPAA-restricted, or with a signature-due date jumps to the top. Second, batch by type: correspondence goes to one workflow, signed contracts to another, medical records to Epic or the equivalent. Third, set up the tools once β file naming convention, folder structure, cross-index sheet β so you're not context-switching per record. At Kaiser and HCA I've cleared batches of 250-350 records per day at 98%+ accuracy by working in 45-minute blocks and doing a 10-minute reconciliation at the end of each block instead of at the end of the day. If I'm not going to make the deadline, I flag it to my supervisor by lunchtime, not at 4:30 PM.
Q2. How do you prioritize when three managers all say their task is urgent?behavioral
I don't just take their word for it β I ask two follow-up questions. First: what's the actual deadline and what happens if we miss it? Second: is there a piece of this that unblocks the others? At a law firm, the associate's brief that's due at 4 PM in court beats the partner's expense report every time, even though the partner outranks the associate. I write down all three tasks with their real deadlines, communicate my sequence back to each manager in a one-line email, and only then start work. Silent prioritization creates conflict; visible prioritization creates alignment.
Q3. Tell me about a time you caught an error before it went out the door.behavioral
STAR. Situation: at a Wells Fargo branch, I was preparing a batch of 40 mortgage disclosure packets for overnight mailing. Task: verify each packet before FedEx pickup at 5 PM. Action: I noticed one packet had the borrower's name on the cover page but a different borrower's Social Security number on page 3 β a compliance issue under GLBA. I pulled the packet, escalated to the loan officer, and we corrected it in 20 minutes. Result: we avoided a reportable disclosure violation. I later proposed a two-person verification step for mortgage packets and it became branch SOP. Employers screen for candidates who catch errors and then propose a systemic fix.
Q4. How comfortable are you with Excel β what's the most advanced thing you've built?technical
Be specific and honest. Strong admin candidates say something like: 'I'm comfortable with VLOOKUP, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and IFERROR wrappers. At my last role I built a monthly billing reconciliation sheet in Excel that pulled from three data exports, cross-referenced them with VLOOKUPs, and flagged discrepancies with conditional formatting. It cut our month-end reconciliation from a full day to about 90 minutes.' If you're not there yet, say what you can do and what you're actively learning. Bluffing Excel in an interview is the fastest way to get filtered out at insurance carriers and banks that live in spreadsheets.
Q5. Why administrative support instead of moving into a specialist role?closer
The honest answer that hiring managers respond to: you get energy from the variety of the work and from being the person who keeps the office running. Every day is a different mix of records, scheduling, correspondence, and problem-solving, and you like that better than a specialist role where you're doing one narrow thing all day. Add a concrete career direction β 'I'm building toward Office Manager or Practice Manager, and the depth I get across departments as a generalist admin is exactly the runway I need.' Employers screen against candidates who see admin as a placeholder job.
Resume Template β Admin / Records Clerk (0-2 yrs)
Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.
Admin / Records Clerk (0-2 yrs)
- βΈProcessed 250-350 patient records per day at HCA Healthcare regional office at 98.4% accuracy against a 97% team benchmark.
- βΈHandled 60-90 inbound calls per day with a 92% first-call resolution rate; escalated only 4% to supervisor.
- βΈProficient in Epic, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Teams; 62 WPM typing at 99% accuracy.
- βΈ$34,500 base salary + benefits + shift differential; promoted from temp to full-time in month 5.
What Gets You Rejected
- βSub-45 WPM typing or self-reported 'basic' Excel β records-heavy employers screen for measurable speed and formula fluency.
- βNo fluency in the domain's compliance framework (HIPAA for hospitals, FERPA for universities, GLBA for banks).
- βJob-hopping across unrelated industries without a domain specialty β signals a generalist without depth.
- βCannot describe a specific error caught, process improved, or SOP written β pure task-taker with no ownership signals.
- βWeak written communication in the email exchange during the hiring process β that email is the interview.
Salary Negotiation Levers
- βDomain software fluency (Epic, iManage, Guidewire, PeopleSoft, Workday) β 5-10% pay lever versus generalist admin.
- βMetro cost of living β SF, NYC, Boston, DC roles pay 15-25% above the BLS median of $45,670; rural and small-metro roles trend below.
- βEmployer type β hospital systems (HCA, Ascension, Kaiser), BigLaw firms, and insurance carriers (Aetna, Cigna) sit at the top of the range; small nonprofits and municipalities sit at the bottom.
- βShift differential β evening, overnight, or weekend admin shifts at hospital systems and 24/7 call centers add 8-15% to base.
- βUnion membership β state and municipal admin roles at the AFSCME or SEIU level negotiate collectively; step increases are automatic every 12-18 months.
- βTenure-driven step increases at large employers β Kaiser, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and state agencies all have step schedules that reward 3, 5, and 10 year tenure with named raises.
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Resume Review β $29
Personalized resume review from someone who has hired office and administrative support workers, all others. Purchase, email your resume to support@weblabra.com, and receive detailed written feedback within 7 days.
- β Occupation-specific critique (not generic)
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- β 7-day turnaround, 100% refund if we miss it
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Career Kit β $19
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Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Salary by State
Best Cities (cost-adjusted) βSalary Map β Click a state for details
$27K$69Kβ No data
Top Paying States
District of Columbia
$69K
+50%
Idaho
$61K
+34%
Rhode Island
$58K
+28%
Alaska
$58K
+27%
New Mexico
$57K
+25%
North Dakota
$54K
+19%
California
$54K
+18%
Colorado
$53K
+17%
Vermont
$53K
+17%
Virginia
$53K
+16%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
| State | Median | vs. National |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $68,600 | +50.2% |
| Idaho | $61,140 | +33.9% |
| Rhode Island | $58,470 | +28.0% |
| Alaska | $57,840 | +26.6% |
| New Mexico | $56,930 | +24.7% |
| North Dakota | $54,200 | +18.7% |
| California | $54,020 | +18.3% |
| Colorado | $53,460 | +17.1% |
| Vermont | $53,410 | +16.9% |
| Virginia | $53,170 | +16.4% |
Showing 1β10 of 49
Office and Administrative Support Workers, All Other Salary by Metro Area
| Metro Area | Median | vs. National |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | $72,830 | +59.5% |
| Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY | $67,490 | +47.8% |
| Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | $66,710 | +46.1% |
| Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY | $65,060 | +42.5% |
| Lansing-East Lansing, MI | $64,440 | +41.1% |
| Napa, CA | $62,630 | +37.1% |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $61,790 | +35.3% |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $61,780 | +35.3% |
| Boise City, ID | $61,450 | +34.6% |
| Niles, MI | $61,410 | +34.5% |
Showing 1β10 of 274
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
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A office and administrative support workers, all other earning $45,670/year would need 1305 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 1401 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
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