Administrative Assistant salary in San Jose-Sunnyvale, CA

Pay in San Jose-Sunnyvale against California and the US

Administrative assistants at the 90th percentile earn $89,290, 1.9 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.0. The middle half of administrative assistants in San Jose-Sunnyvale earns $53,220–$77,380. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $24,160 wide, wider than in California as a whole ($19,010) and the US ($19,170), so what a administrative assistant earns in San Jose-Sunnyvale depends more on the employer.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $14,440 a year in pay and about $18,632 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $9,720 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 10th and 25th percentiles in San Jose-Sunnyvale, and the California statewide median of $55,400 falls between the 25th percentile and the median. An offer at the national rate would be lower than what three quarters of local administrative assistants earn.

What a hire really costs in San Jose-Sunnyvale

Pay is only part of it. Benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², which adds about $18,273 to the $62,940 median and brings it to $81,213 a year. 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 San Jose-Sunnyvale

Of the 17 roles we track in San Jose-Sunnyvale, this one ranks #13 by median pay, between bookkeepers ($66,130) and customer support specialists ($60,480). Marketing Specialist is the highest at $141,960.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #12 of the 17 roles we track in San Jose-Sunnyvale (+32.4%), between HR assistants (+33.6%) and project coordinators (+32.1%). The typical role here is at +35.1%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Administrative assistants hold 7.2% of the jobs in these 17 roles in San Jose-Sunnyvale, 9.5% across California and 10.8% nationally. The job is a smaller part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in California

Across the 28 areas of California with data for this job, the median runs from $49,150 in El Centro to $62,940 in San Jose-Sunnyvale, a gap of $13,790 a year. All 5 areas in California with more administrative assistants than San Jose-Sunnyvale pay less, among them Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA ($53,550) and San Francisco-Oakland, CA ($62,110).

San Jose-Sunnyvale against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, San Jose-Sunnyvale is #37 of 520 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job and one of the better-paying ones. Outside California, New Haven pay just above San Jose-Sunnyvale and Seattle-Tacoma and Bremerton-Silverdale just below. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, none pays as much.

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Sources

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