Administrative Assistant salary in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA

Pay in Santa Cruz-Watsonville against California and the US

Administrative assistants at the 90th percentile earn $79,490, 2.1 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 2.0. The middle half of administrative assistants in Santa Cruz-Watsonville earns $46,420–$68,410. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is $21,990 wide, wider than in California as a whole ($19,010) and the US ($19,170), so what a administrative assistant earns in Santa Cruz-Watsonville depends more on the employer.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $10,900 a year in pay and about $14,065 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $11,090 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 25th percentile and the median in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, and the California statewide median of $55,400 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in Santa Cruz-Watsonville

At the $57,510 median, a local hire costs about $74,206 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $16,696 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 Santa Cruz-Watsonville

Of the 17 roles we track in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, this one ranks #12 by median pay, between HR assistants ($61,600) and medical administrative assistants ($50,230). Project Coordinator is the highest at $106,780.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #3 of the 17 roles we track in Santa Cruz-Watsonville (+21.0%), between HR assistants (+21.7%) and virtual receptionists (+18.3%). The typical role here is at +9.4%, so, measured against the US, administrative assistants cost more in Santa Cruz-Watsonville than the area's general pay level would suggest. Administrative assistants hold 11.6% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, 9.5% across California and 10.8% nationally. That is close to the national mix.

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. Of the 19 areas in California with more administrative assistants than Santa Cruz-Watsonville, 16 pay less, the largest of them Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA ($53,550), Riverside-San Bernardino, CA ($52,920) and San Diego-Chula Vista, CA ($55,380).

Santa Cruz-Watsonville against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Santa Cruz-Watsonville is #331 of 520 US areas for this job. It is a mid-sized market, and its pay is in the top quarter of US areas. Outside California, Longview-Kelso and Boston-Cambridge pay just above Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Bridgeport-Stamford and Mount Vernon-Anacortes just below. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, none pays as much.

Questions

Sources

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