Administrative Assistant salary and cost of hiring in the US
An administrative assistant keeps the office running on paper and online: documents, data, scheduling, orders and the many small requests that land on a small team every day.
BLS occupation 43-6014[1]; benefits share[2]. Checked 2026-10-16.
US salary range
| Range | 10th | Median | 90th | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $33,280 | $47,540 | $66,350 |
Salary by state
| State | Median | 90th percentile | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $84,290 | 11,800 | |
| Massachusetts | $78,400 | 37,750 | |
| Washington | $74,750 | 31,710 | |
| Connecticut | $78,300 | 22,650 | |
| California | $78,170 | 158,630 | |
| Rhode Island | $72,800 | 5,200 | |
| Oregon | $70,320 | 23,150 | |
| Minnesota | $66,830 | 31,330 | |
| Hawaii | $68,120 | 7,020 | |
| New Jersey | $72,180 | 65,960 | |
| Maine | $63,470 | 6,740 | |
| New York | $64,840 | 122,490 | |
| Vermont | $61,740 | 3,360 | |
| Colorado | $64,960 | 29,120 | |
| Maryland | $67,070 | 54,890 | |
| Alaska | $64,620 | 5,390 | |
| Illinois | $76,790 | 74,280 | |
| New Hampshire | $63,690 | 9,050 | |
| Delaware | $64,170 | 6,320 | |
| Arizona | $67,980 | 31,220 | |
| Wisconsin | $61,940 | 28,100 | |
| Virginia | $66,700 | 31,580 | |
| North Dakota | $60,780 | 5,800 | |
| Utah | $63,850 | 14,870 | |
| Nebraska | $62,130 | 16,240 | |
| Nevada | $63,210 | 16,790 | |
| New Mexico | $61,820 | 25,430 | |
| Pennsylvania | $61,800 | 65,310 | |
| Ohio | $63,150 | 54,790 | |
| Michigan | $63,950 | 40,830 | |
| Florida | $63,340 | 104,000 | |
| Tennessee | $63,130 | 34,580 | |
| North Carolina | $61,750 | 43,690 | |
| Wyoming | $61,150 | 2,250 | |
| Iowa | $60,760 | 12,830 | |
| Texas | $63,020 | 149,650 | |
| South Carolina | $61,660 | 30,180 | |
| Indiana | $60,160 | 20,100 | |
| Kentucky | $60,470 | 18,420 | |
| Montana | $55,970 | 4,520 | |
| Idaho | $58,820 | 7,570 | |
| Missouri | $60,270 | 33,180 | |
| Kansas | $58,690 | 32,120 | |
| South Dakota | $51,480 | 6,120 | |
| Alabama | $59,090 | 45,050 | |
| Georgia (US state) | $62,090 | 44,430 | |
| West Virginia | $57,970 | 8,820 | |
| Oklahoma | $56,630 | 20,120 | |
| Louisiana | $56,340 | 28,040 | |
| Arkansas | $55,060 | 8,590 | |
| Mississippi | $57,870 | 14,720 |
Top-paying metro areas
Areas with at least 500 people in the job.
| Metro area | Median | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| New Haven, CT | 4,780 | |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 7,970 | |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 20,270 | |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 15,780 | |
| Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA | 830 | |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 28,540 | |
| Napa, CA | 630 | |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | 2,150 | |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | 960 | |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | 5,800 |
What the job involves
- Maintain files, templates and shared drives
- Enter and check data in spreadsheets and the CRM
- Schedule meetings and book rooms or calls
- Order supplies and track invoices
- Answer routine emails from customers and vendors
Tools
- Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
- Excel or Google Sheets
- a CRM
- DocuSign
- Slack or Teams
How to test candidates
- A spreadsheet task with lookups and a pivot table
- A short business email written from bullet points
- Attention-to-detail test: find 10 errors in an invoice list
Remote work
Most admin work is asynchronous, so a 2-3 hour overlap is usually enough if tasks are written down in one tracker.
Local or remote
We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for administrative assistants 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 fee[3]; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool[4].
Questions
What is the average administrative assistant salary in the US?
The BLS median was $47,540 a year in May 2025 and the mean $49,350.
Which state pays administrative assistants the most?
District of Columbia, with a median of $59,910 a year.
Sources
- BLS OEWS May 2025, 43-6014: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes436014.htm
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, private industry, June 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
- Silkstaff pricing: https://silkstaff.com/#pricing
- Deel pricing, contractor management: https://www.deel.com/pricing/
How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Data checked 2026-10-16.