Administrative Assistant salary in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area

Pay in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area against Tennessee and the US

Pay is more spread out here than nationally: the top tenth earns $56,430 or more, 2.2 times the bottom tenth, against 2.0 times across the US. Two offers for the same title can sit far apart. The middle half of administrative assistants in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area earns $31,240–$48,090. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $16,850 wide, against $16,960 across Tennessee and $19,170 nationally: employers in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for an administrative assistant here

An offer at the 75th percentile instead of the median adds $9,860 a year in pay and about $12,723 in employer cost. Going down to the 25th percentile saves $6,990 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 median and the 75th percentile in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area, and the Tennessee statewide median of $45,810 falls there too.

What a hire really costs in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area

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 $11,099 to the $38,230 median and brings it to $49,329 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 the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area

Of the 17 roles we track in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area, this one ranks #14 by median pay, between customer support specialists ($38,370) and data entry specialists ($37,750). Project Coordinator is the highest at $81,590.

Measured against the US median, administrative assistants rank #14 of the 17 roles we track in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area (-19.6%), between paralegals (-19.5%) and project coordinators (-20.3%). The typical role here is at -14.3%, so, measured against the US, administrative assistants cost less in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area than the area's general pay level would suggest. Administrative assistants hold 13.6% of the jobs in these 17 roles in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area, 9.5% across Tennessee and 10.8% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Tennessee

Across the 14 areas of Tennessee with data for this job, the median runs from $38,230 in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area to $49,000 in Nashville-Murfreesboro, a gap of $10,770 a year. All 7 areas in Tennessee with more administrative assistants than the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area also pay more, among them Nashville-Murfreesboro, TN ($49,000) and Memphis, TN-MS ($45,960).

the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area is #276 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 Tennessee, Huntington-Ashland and Macon-Bibb County pay just above the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area and Gulfport-Biloxi and Lafayette just below. All four are within $170 a year of the median in the South Central Tennessee nonmetro area. Of the three markets with about as many administrative assistants, all three pay more.

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