Administrative Assistant salary in Fort Smith, AR-OK

Pay in Fort Smith against Arkansas and the US

The middle half of administrative assistants in Fort Smith earns $32,460–$44,570. The top tenth earns $51,570 or more, 1.8 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 2.0 times. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $12,110 wide, against $14,490 across Arkansas and $19,170 nationally: employers in Fort Smith pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $6,930 a year in pay and about $8,942 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $5,180 in pay. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $47,540 falls between the 75th and 90th percentiles in Fort Smith, and the Arkansas statewide median of $37,630 falls between the 25th percentile and the median. An offer at the national rate would beat what three quarters of local administrative assistants earn.

What a hire really costs in Fort Smith

At the $37,640 median, a local hire costs about $48,568 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $10,928 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

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 fee³; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool⁴.

Other roles in Fort Smith

Of the 16 roles we track in Fort Smith, this one ranks #12 by median pay, between HR assistants ($40,700) and customer support specialists ($37,500). Project Coordinator is the highest at $74,990.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #7 of the 16 roles we track in Fort Smith (-20.8%), between HR assistants (-19.6%) and medical administrative assistants (-22.0%). The typical role here is at -22.1%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Administrative assistants hold 9.4% of the jobs in these 16 roles in Fort Smith, 8.1% across Arkansas and 10.8% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Arkansas

Across the 9 areas of Arkansas with data for this job, the median runs from $34,250 in the East Arkansas nonmetro area to $41,550 in Fayetteville-Springdale, a gap of $7,300 a year. Of the 4 areas in Arkansas with more administrative assistants than Fort Smith, 2 pay less: the South Arkansas nonmetro area ($35,520) and the North Arkansas nonmetro area ($35,970).

Fort Smith against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Fort Smith is #389 of 520 US areas for this job. It is a mid-sized market, and its pay is in the bottom quarter of US areas. Outside Arkansas, Slidell-Mandeville and Albany pay just above Fort Smith and Columbus and Rome just below. All four are within $190 a year of the median in Fort Smith. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.