Administrative assistants in the United States earn a median of $47,540 a year. Pay starts near $33,280. The national 90th percentile is $66,350. This page does not publish a state top-of-range figure.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive, SOC 43-6014). Employment 1,706,790. Last checked 22 September 2026. National percentiles via the BLS OEWS release as republished on O*NET OnLine wage tables.
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, May 2025 (Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive). Entry is the national 10th percentile. The top chip is the national 90th percentile, not a state. The middle half of workers earns $38,830 to $58,000. Hourly equivalents: $16.00, $22.86, and $31.90. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for secretaries and administrative assistants. The marker on the exposure bar is PayCrunch editorial context, not a BLS statistic. Updated 22 September 2026.
Draft correspondence, schedule appointments, keep files, and give callers information. This SOC excludes legal, medical, and executive secretaries.
AI tools that fit Administrative Assistant work September 2026
A short list of general tools. This is not a sponsored placement, not a weekly crawl, and not a product review with prices. Use whatever your employer already allows.
AI inside Outlook, Word, and Teams.
How a Administrative Assistant uses it: Draft an agenda from a thread, then check every time against the calendar itself.
Google's assistant in Gmail and Docs.
How a Administrative Assistant uses it: Summarize a meeting note into decisions and open questions.
A general writing assistant.
How a Administrative Assistant uses it: Turn rough notes into a polite reply. Remove anything the office has not approved you to send.
Administrative assistant: the calendar, the file, and SOC 43-6014
This page is SOC 43-6014, secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive. The locked chips are entry $33,280, median $47,540, and a national 90th percentile of $66,350. BLS counted 1,706,790 wage-and-salary workers in May 2025. Legal secretaries are a different page and a different wage. Executive and medical administrative assistants are also outside this SOC.
What the national percentiles say
The middle half earns $38,830 to $58,000. The step from the median $47,540 to the national 90th percentile $66,350 is $18,810 a year. That step is still inside this occupation's national distribution. It is not an executive-assistant wage, and this page does not borrow one.
The work that holds the wage
A calendar that double-books is a visible failure. A reply that promises a date the calendar does not have is a second failure. The record of what was decided has to match what was sent. Drafting tools can write the sentence. They cannot see that the room is already taken.
Outlook
O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as a decline (minus 1 percent or lower). O*NET projects about 202,800 openings a year over 2024–2034, largely from people leaving the occupation.
Locked wage chips on this page: entry $33,280, median $47,540, national 90th percentile $66,350. SOC 43-6014. If a sentence disagrees with those three figures, the figures win.
How to do the work that sits inside this pay band
These steps stay inside the published national range. They are not a promise that you will be paid the 90th percentile.
A confirmation that is not on the calendar is a conflict.
Here are the constraints. Propose two times that satisfy all of them. If none do, say so. Do not invent availability I did not paste.A decision that lives only in chat gets remade.
Turn these notes into a decision log: decision, date, owner, and what is still open. Drop small talk.A guessed transfer wastes the call.
Draft a three-sentence callback note from this message. Do not add a promise I did not type.Careers related to Administrative Assistant
Similar pay, same field
- Office Clerk $45,010
- Shipping Clerk $45,260
- Customer Service Representative $44,770
- Bookkeeper $50,670
Where this can lead
- Legal Secretary $55,570
- Payroll Specialist $58,260
- Office Supervisor $69,500
- Executive Secretary $76,590
Wages in this list are the national medians printed on those pages. Every new page in this batch uses BLS OEWS May 2025.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Paste only facts you already have: a tag, a count, a calendar constraint, a file name. If the draft adds a number, a policy, or a product you did not provide, delete it.
Do not paste account numbers, full customer records, or anything your employer has told you to keep inside its own system.
TODO: PC_GEAR is not filled in this batch. No product links and no ASINs until a reviewed list exists. Do not invent ASINs.
TODO: state-wage table is not filled in this batch. The chips above are national OEWS May 2025 percentiles only. State medians are not estimated here.
Sources
- BLS OEWS — Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive (SOC 43-6014)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — related profile
- O*NET OnLine summary for 43-6014.00 (2025 wages and 2024–2034 outlook category)
- Salary (10th, 25th, median, 75th, 90th) — national BLS OEWS May 2025.
- Employment — national OEWS May 2025 wage-and-salary employment, 1,706,790.
- Outlook — O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as a decline (minus 1 percent or lower). Projected openings: about 202,800 a year.
- Not on this page — state wages, metro wages, and product recommendations.
Check another occupation
These five pages are the highest-employment OEWS lines that were missing from the directory.