Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Salary

Bureau of Labor Statistics title: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive

The median secretaries and administrative assistants salary in the United States is $47,540 per year ($22.86/hour). Salaries range from $33,280 at the entry level to $66,350+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 1,706,790 secretaries and administrative assistants jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to decline 1.6% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 Β· Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary
$47,540
per year
Hourly Rate
$22.86
per hour
Employment
1,706,790
jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile
$33,280
25th percentile
$38,830
Median
$47,540
75th percentile
$58,000
90th percentile
$66,350

Job Growth (2024-2034)

-1.6%
Decline

Annual Openings

202,800
jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

High school diploma or equivalent

Training Needed

Short-term on-the-job training

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for secretaries and administrative assistantss.

Administrative assistants β€” the general category outside legal, medical, and executive-level EAs β€” are the operational backbone of teams and departments. They manage calendars, book travel, process expense reports, coordinate vendors, order office supplies, run internal events, and route information between people who don't have time to route it themselves. BLS median pay is $47,540; the 10th percentile earns $33,280 and the 90th percentile clears $66,350 across roughly 1,706,790 U.S. jobs β€” one of the largest occupations in the country. Entry admin $34-42k; established department admin $45-58k; senior admin / team lead $58-72k; office manager / operations lead $65-92k. Corporate (Fortune 500 corporate offices, financial services, biotech, tech), government, and unionized public-sector admin roles pay 20-40% above the national median. Contract-to-hire and staffing agencies (Randstad, Robert Half, Kelly Services) run 5-15% under direct-hire but often convert.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Calendar wrangling across multiple stakeholders
Outlook / Google Calendar mastery, time-zone math without a calculator, holding tentative slots without offending anyone, moving five overlapping meetings to make one exec's flight without dropping anything.
Expense reports & procurement
Concur, Expensify, SAP Ariba, Coupa. Categorize expenses correctly to the GL string, chase receipts, code T&E policy exceptions, submit before the manager's card gets frozen. Purchase orders, vendor onboarding, W-9 collection.
Travel booking & itinerary management
Concur Travel, Egencia, SAP TripActions. Know which airlines / hotels the company has corporate rates with, understand ranked-seat vs. purchased-seat, build day-by-day itineraries with confirmation numbers and ground transport. Rebook a canceled flight from LGA at 5:45 AM without waking anyone up.
Meeting logistics & event coordination
Room booking (Envoy, Robin, native Outlook rooms), catering orders, AV setup, VC (Zoom, Teams, Webex) links, dial-ins for hybrid attendees, agenda printing, and minute-taking when asked. All-hands, offsites, board meetings scale up the same core skills.
Vendor & office coordination
Deliveries, badge and building access, IT ticket routing, break room and supply reordering, mail sorting, and the invisible daily coordination that keeps an office running. In hybrid environments this shifts to WFH stipend admin, shipping laptops, and home office reimbursements.
Communication drafting & confidentiality
Draft short emails, calendar invites, and meeting summaries in your manager's voice. Handle confidential org information (comp discussions, RIF planning, executive travel) without leaking to peers.
Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace power use
Real fluency β€” Excel/Sheets pivot tables and vlookup/xlookup, PowerPoint template hygiene, Word mail merge, Outlook rules and search folders, SharePoint and OneDrive organization. Non-negotiable at manager+ admin roles.

How to Become a Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

  1. 1
    High school diploma minimum; associate's degree or bachelor's preferred at corporate levels
    Community college AAS in Office Administration or Business is common; a bachelor's opens the door to Fortune 500 admin roles that pay 25-40% above median. English, business, or communications majors are common.
  2. 2
    Start as a receptionist, office coordinator, or admin intern
    $34-42k. Front desk, phones, calendars, supply orders. This is the training-ground rung β€” 12-24 months before promotion to full department admin. Learn every system (email, calendar, expense, travel) cold.
  3. 3
    Move to department admin supporting a team of 8-20
    $42-58k. Own calendars, expense reports, travel, and meeting coordination for a full team. This is the seat that builds executive-assistant candidacy β€” most EAs come from department admin roles.
  4. 4
    Add credentials β€” Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Expert + PACE / CAP
    $100-300 per exam. MOS Excel + MOS PowerPoint Expert are the most widely-referenced admin credentials. IAAP's Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) is the senior admin credential and often unlocks senior admin / EA pay bands.
  5. 5
    Move to senior admin, team lead, or office manager
    $58-92k. Manage other admins, own facilities and vendor relationships, sit on the operations leadership team of a department. From here the tracks are: EA to executive (higher pay, narrower scope), Chief of Staff (more strategic), or Facilities / Operations Manager (broader P&L).

Career Progression

Receptionist / Office Coordinator / Admin I
0-2 yrs$34-45k
  • β€’Front desk, phones, greeting visitors and badge check-in
  • β€’Supply ordering, mail sorting, package handling
  • β€’Meeting room booking and light calendar support
  • β€’Assist senior admins with expense reports and travel bookings
Next: Department admin at 12-24 months once you know every system cold.
Department Admin / Admin II
2-5 yrs$44-60k
  • β€’Own calendars, travel, and expense reports for 8-20 team members
  • β€’Coordinate all-hands, team offsites, and department events
  • β€’Draft communications, meeting agendas, and follow-up notes
  • β€’Vendor coordination, PO submission, and light procurement work
Next: Senior admin / team lead at 4-7 years, or EA if you want the executive path.
Senior Admin / Team Lead / EA (non-executive)
5-10 yrs$58-78k
  • β€’Manage 2-5 junior admins; own the admin workflow and quality bar for the department
  • β€’Support a director or VP directly on calendar, travel, and confidential coordination
  • β€’Own annual events (all-hands, offsites, holiday parties, customer events) as project lead
  • β€’Partner with HR, IT, and Facilities on onboarding, badge access, and space planning
Next: Office manager / operations lead, or executive assistant to a C-level (which lives in a separate BLS category).
Office Manager / Operations Lead
8+ yrs$68-98k
  • β€’Own the office β€” lease, vendor contracts, cleaning, security, snacks and catering
  • β€’Manage 3-8 admins and receptionists across the office(s)
  • β€’Own budgets ($200k-$3M+ depending on office size) β€” negotiate with landlords, cleaners, caterers, IT vendors
  • β€’Sit on the operations leadership team; partner with HR and Finance on facilities strategy
Next: Facilities Manager, Head of Operations, or transition into HR Operations or Corporate Services leadership.

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 13 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Your VP has 3 back-to-back meetings and their flight leaves in 4 hours from an airport 90 minutes away. What do you do?situational
Move fast and don't ask for permission on the routine pieces. First, check the flight β€” is there a later same-day option? If yes, hold that as backup. Second, look at the 3 meetings and rank them: which are must-attend (customer, board, exec), which can move (internal recurring), which can be delegated (send a note-taker). Third, propose a plan to the VP in one clear message: 'Meeting 1 stays 10-10:30 in person; Meeting 2 moves to Tuesday, I've already blocked Tuesday 2pm; Meeting 3 I've asked [name] to cover; car service will pick you up at 11:30 with your bag pre-packed at reception; flight is on schedule, later flight held as backup.' Then execute. Interviewers want to see you make judgment calls, not ping-pong every decision back to your manager.
Q2. Walk me through how you'd plan a 3-day offsite for 25 people.case
Structure the answer around the timeline. Week -12: get a budget, guest list, target dates, and 2-3 city options; scout hotels with the corporate travel team. Week -8: contract signed with the hotel and any local vendors; save-the-date with a placeholder agenda goes out. Week -6: full agenda locked with facilitator, breakout sessions, and dinners; flights booked through Concur Travel. Week -3: dietary restrictions and rooming lists finalized; AV walkthrough with the venue. Week -1: printed materials, welcome bags, transport confirmations, and a run-of-show doc that any team member can execute if you get sick. Day of: arrive 3 hours before the group, walk every meeting room, confirm AV, greet the group. Post: expense reconciliation, thank-you notes to venue and vendors, and a lessons-learned doc for next year. Interviewers want detail and pacing, not vague enthusiasm.
Q3. How do you handle a manager who consistently books their own meetings on top of yours?situational
This is common and it's mostly a communication fix, not a personality fix. First, sit down with the manager and ask: what's your default preference β€” do you always want to see holds before I confirm, or do you trust me to just book? Most managers say 'just book unless it's over 90 min or with someone C-level.' Then set up a shared Outlook or Google Calendar filter so you both see each other's tentative holds. Send a Monday-morning look-ahead email flagging conflicts and asking for tie-breaks. If it keeps happening after that, name it directly: 'I've noticed you're double-booking my holds; I want to fix that so I'm not wasting your time or the other party's.' Interviewers want to hear you'll manage up without complaining.
Q4. Why administrative work β€” you clearly could do something else.culture
The honest version: you like operational problem-solving, you like being the person who makes 25 other people's days work, and you like variety β€” every hour is a different problem. Talk about a specific moment: the offsite you saved when a hotel cancelled 48 hours out, the exec's flight you rebooked at 4am, the vendor contract you renegotiated for $18k of annual savings. Avoid saying 'I'm organized' or 'I like helping people' β€” every candidate says that. Say you like operations plus one specific skill (event planning, procurement, executive support) that reframes admin as strategic.
Q5. Where do you see your career in 5 years?closer
Pick a fork: (1) executive assistant to a C-level (higher pay, narrower scope, lives in a separate BLS category); (2) office manager or operations lead (broader P&L, facilities and vendor management); (3) Chief of Staff (strategic + operational β€” a growing role); (4) transition into HR Ops, Corporate Services, or Event Management. Name specific credentials you're building (MOS Expert, CAP, PMP, or an events cert like CMP) and one industry vertical you want to specialize in. Interviewers want signal that you're thinking concretely about growth, not just 'stay in this seat.'

Resume Template β€” Department Admin (2-5 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Department Admin (2-5 yrs)
  • β–ΈSole admin supporting a 14-person Product team including 2 directors; owned calendars, travel, expenses, and quarterly offsite for FY24.
  • β–ΈProcessed 340 expense reports through Concur and 62 travel bookings through Egencia at 100% policy compliance and $0 in rejected reimbursements.
  • β–ΈRan two 22-person team offsites under $65k combined budget with $8k in savings vs prior year through renegotiated hotel rates.
  • β–ΈMicrosoft Office Specialist (MOS) Expert - Excel + PowerPoint. AAS Business Administration. Base $54k + $2k bonus + full benefits.

What Gets You Rejected

  • βœ—Cannot demonstrate real Excel or PowerPoint fluency β€” 'basic' Excel is a screen-out at any corporate admin role paying above median.
  • βœ—Confuses discretion with silence β€” good admins share necessary information up, down, and across; bad admins over-share to peers about confidential matters.
  • βœ—Waits for instruction on every decision β€” the seat requires judgment on 30-50 small decisions a day, and constant ping-back tanks the manager's productivity.
  • βœ—Cannot cite specific expense, travel, or event coordination tools by name (Concur, Expensify, Egencia, Cvent, Envoy) β€” signals resume padding.
  • βœ—Poor written communication β€” typos in calendar invites, confusing meeting subject lines, or emails that require 3 follow-ups signal poor daily execution.
  • βœ—No follow-through β€” the resume lists many projects but candidate can't describe what they personally did on any of them.
  • βœ—Bad-mouths a previous manager or team in the interview β€” admins hold confidential information; interviewers screen hard for discretion signals.

Salary Negotiation Levers

  • βœ“Industry vertical β€” financial services, biotech, tech, and law-firm-admin (in-house corporate) pay 25-40% above the retail / nonprofit median.
  • βœ“Metro premium β€” NYC, SF, Boston, Seattle, DC add 15-25%; hybrid and remote roles are increasingly common but often pay to a national band.
  • βœ“Credentials β€” MOS Expert (Excel + PowerPoint), CAP (IAAP Certified Administrative Professional), PMP, and CMP (event management) each add 5-10% to comp band eligibility.
  • βœ“Scope β€” supporting a director or VP directly, or managing junior admins, or owning event / offsite budgets pushes you into the senior admin band even if the title lags.
  • βœ“Bonus target β€” corporate roles often have 5-10% annual bonus targets; sometimes the initial offer omits this and you have to ask.
  • βœ“Benefits negotiation β€” 401(k) match, health premium share, PTO days, commuter benefits, and educational reimbursement are all levers with real dollar value ($4-15k per year) and are often more flexible than base.

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Resume Review β€” $29

Personalized resume review from someone who has hired secretaries and administrative assistantss. Purchase, email your resume to support@weblabra.com, and receive detailed written feedback within 7 days.

  • βœ“ Occupation-specific critique (not generic)
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  • βœ“ Missing skills / keywords flagged
  • βœ“ Formatting + ATS-readability feedback
  • βœ“ 7-day turnaround, 100% refund if we miss it

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Career Kit β€” $19

  • βœ“ All 13 interview questions with expert answers
  • βœ“ 11 real questions aggregated from Glassdoor, Blind, Reddit, LinkedIn
  • βœ“ Interview format intel for 8 top employers
  • βœ“ 3 copy-paste salary negotiation emails
  • βœ“ Resume bullets for every level of the career ladder
  • βœ“ 30–60–90 day plan for your first role
  • βœ“ Cover letter templates specific to this occupation
  • βœ“ Detailed salary negotiation script
  • βœ“ Ranked list of certifications with cost + ROI
  • βœ“ Downloadable PDF for offline access
  • βœ“ Instant access, no expiration, no subscription
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Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) β†’

Salary Map β€” Click a state for details

$37K
$60Kβ–  No data

Top Paying States

District of Columbia
$60K
+26%
Massachusetts
$58K
+22%
Washington
$57K
+21%
Connecticut
$57K
+20%
California
$55K
+17%
Rhode Island
$52K
+10%
Oregon
$52K
+9%
Minnesota
$51K
+8%
Hawaii
$51K
+7%
New Jersey
$50K
+6%
Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.
StateMedianvs. National
District of Columbia$59,910+26.0%
Massachusetts$57,940+21.9%
Washington$57,330+20.6%
Connecticut$57,210+20.3%
California$55,400+16.5%
Rhode Island$52,140+9.7%
Oregon$51,740+8.8%
Minnesota$51,400+8.1%
Hawaii$50,830+6.9%
New Jersey$50,260+5.7%
1–10 of 51

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants Salary by Metro Area

Metro AreaMedianvs. National
New Haven, CT$63,800+34.2%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA$62,940+32.4%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA$62,110+30.6%
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA$60,230+26.7%
Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA$59,510+25.2%
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH$59,330+24.8%
Napa, CA$58,810+23.7%
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA$57,720+21.4%
Longview-Kelso, WA$57,580+21.1%
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA$57,510+21.0%
1–10 of 395
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.
How does this compare to pro athletes?
A secretaries and administrative assistants earning $47,540/year would need 1254 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 1346 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.
See all sports & celebrity salaries β†’
πŸ“ˆ See how secretaries and administrative assistants salaries have changed over the past decade.
View Secretaries and Administrative Assistants salary trend (2011–2024) β†’