What an administrative assistant costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 1,706,790 jobs, what an employer pays on top of it, the pay in every state, and which of the job's core tasks already show up in AI use.
Medians for the whole US. Your own cost depends on where you hire, the benefits you offer and the hours worked.
- Median wage
- $47,540
- Hourly wage
- $22.86
- Loaded per hour
- $28.47
- Middle half earns
- $38,830 to $58,000
- Jobs in the US
- 1,706,790
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
An administrative assistant in the US is paid a median $47,540 a year, $22.86 an hour, across 1,706,790 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $59,210. Of its 10 core tasks, 4 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in every one Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, most important first, and how each showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026. The bar splits those conversations between Claude doing the task and Claude helping a person do it.
- 01Answer telephones and give information to callers, take messages, or transfer calls to appropriate individuals.API: 99% did the task, 1% helped
- 02Greet visitors or callers and handle their inquiries or direct them to the appropriate persons according to their needs.API: 99% did the task, 1% helped
- 03Use computers for various applications, such as database management or word processing.Claude.ai: 92% did the task, 8% helped · API: 98% did the task
- 04Create, maintain, and enter information into databases.Claude.ai: 83% did the task, 17% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 05Operate office equipment, such as fax machines, copiers, or phone systems and arrange for repairs when equipment malfunctions.
- 06Set up and manage paper or electronic filing systems, recording information, updating paperwork, or maintaining documents, such as attendance records, correspondence, or other material.
- 07Operate electronic mail systems and coordinate the flow of information, internally or with other organizations.
- 08Schedule and confirm appointments for clients, customers, or supervisors.Claude.ai: 74% did the task, 26% helped · API: 97% did the task
- 09Maintain scheduling and event calendars.Claude.ai: 87% did the task, 13% helped · API: 96% did the task
- 10Compose, type, and distribute meeting notes, routine correspondence, or reports, such as presentations or expense, statistical, or monthly reports.API: 99% did the task, 1% helped
4 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 4 more only in its sample of API traffic, where businesses run Claude inside their own software. A task without a row had too few conversations for Anthropic to publish, which is not the same as none. Shares are of all sampled Claude.ai conversations, so small figures are normal: 0.58% of every conversation that month was about this occupation.
Pay by state
The median annual wage in each state and DC, and the same wage fully loaded. District of Columbia pays the most, $59,910; Mississippi the least, $37,340.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $41,630 | $51,850 | $35,580 to $49,120 | 45,050 |
| Alaska | $48,530 | $60,440 | $41,760 to $58,910 | 5,390 |
| Arizona | $47,940 | $59,710 | $40,510 to $55,860 | 31,220 |
| Arkansas | $37,630 | $46,870 | $31,720 to $46,210 | 8,590 |
| California | $55,400 | $69,000 | $46,390 to $65,400 | 158,630 |
| Colorado | $48,690 | $60,640 | $42,840 to $58,170 | 29,120 |
| Connecticut | $57,210 | $71,260 | $47,630 to $66,050 | 22,650 |
| Delaware | $47,970 | $59,750 | $40,230 to $58,600 | 6,320 |
| District of Columbia | $59,910 | $74,620 | $47,370 to $73,340 | 11,800 |
| Florida | $45,900 | $57,170 | $37,840 to $53,340 | 104,000 |
| Georgia | $41,600 | $51,810 | $32,130 to $52,090 | 44,430 |
| Hawaii | $50,830 | $63,310 | $43,920 to $60,410 | 7,020 |
| Idaho | $43,710 | $54,440 | $36,770 to $49,350 | 7,570 |
| Illinois | $48,310 | $60,170 | $39,050 to $61,180 | 74,280 |
| Indiana | $44,270 | $55,140 | $36,860 to $50,050 | 20,100 |
| Iowa | $45,150 | $56,230 | $38,040 to $51,070 | 12,830 |
| Kansas | $42,270 | $52,650 | $35,960 to $49,380 | 32,120 |
| Kentucky | $44,200 | $55,050 | $36,970 to $51,370 | 18,420 |
| Louisiana | $38,790 | $48,310 | $31,840 to $46,710 | 28,040 |
| Maine | $49,820 | $62,050 | $44,750 to $57,570 | 6,740 |
| Maryland | $48,680 | $60,630 | $41,030 to $59,290 | 54,890 |
| Massachusetts | $57,940 | $72,160 | $48,150 to $64,240 | 37,750 |
| Michigan | $46,020 | $57,320 | $38,350 to $53,090 | 40,830 |
| Minnesota | $51,400 | $64,020 | $44,860 to $60,540 | 31,330 |
| Mississippi | $37,340 | $46,510 | $30,430 to $46,490 | 14,720 |
| Missouri | $43,540 | $54,230 | $36,750 to $49,930 | 33,180 |
| Montana | $43,940 | $54,730 | $37,210 to $48,450 | 4,520 |
| Nebraska | $46,760 | $58,240 | $39,710 to $54,080 | 16,240 |
| Nevada | $46,570 | $58,000 | $39,440 to $54,500 | 16,790 |
| New Hampshire | $48,080 | $59,880 | $40,880 to $56,680 | 9,050 |
| New Jersey | $50,260 | $62,600 | $43,200 to $61,370 | 65,960 |
| New Mexico | $46,450 | $57,850 | $38,200 to $55,720 | 25,430 |
| New York | $49,600 | $61,780 | $43,920 to $59,100 | 122,490 |
| North Carolina | $45,790 | $57,030 | $38,100 to $51,870 | 43,690 |
| North Dakota | $47,480 | $59,140 | $40,270 to $53,880 | 5,800 |
| Ohio | $46,230 | $57,580 | $38,170 to $53,710 | 54,790 |
| Oklahoma | $39,660 | $49,400 | $32,230 to $48,310 | 20,120 |
| Oregon | $51,740 | $64,440 | $45,460 to $61,020 | 23,150 |
| Pennsylvania | $46,270 | $57,630 | $37,980 to $53,090 | 65,310 |
| Rhode Island | $52,140 | $64,940 | $44,770 to $61,630 | 5,200 |
| South Carolina | $44,880 | $55,900 | $36,880 to $52,420 | 30,180 |
| South Dakota | $41,700 | $51,940 | $36,280 to $47,670 | 6,120 |
| Tennessee | $45,810 | $57,060 | $37,040 to $54,000 | 34,580 |
| Texas | $45,140 | $56,220 | $36,030 to $53,540 | 149,650 |
| Utah | $47,050 | $58,600 | $37,930 to $55,260 | 14,870 |
| Vermont | $48,920 | $60,930 | $44,340 to $56,620 | 3,360 |
| Virginia | $47,620 | $59,310 | $39,040 to $57,600 | 31,580 |
| Washington | $57,330 | $71,400 | $48,840 to $64,620 | 31,710 |
| West Virginia | $40,370 | $50,280 | $34,090 to $47,920 | 8,820 |
| Wisconsin | $47,710 | $59,420 | $42,360 to $56,030 | 28,100 |
| Wyoming | $45,450 | $56,610 | $38,760 to $50,310 | 2,250 |
The same benefits ratio applies in every state, because BLS does not publish benefit costs by business size for each state. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile wage.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure is copied from a public file. The only arithmetic is the loaded cost: the wage times 1.2455.
- Wages
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 43-6014 (Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive). Annual figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, as BLS computes them, so they already include pay for paid leave.
- Fully loaded
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private businesses with 1 to 49 workers: $37.64 an hour in total compensation over $27.88 in wages plus $2.34 in paid leave gives 1.2455. Paid leave sits in the denominator because the annual wage already pays it.
- Tasks
- O*NET 31.0 core tasks for 43-6014.00, the ten most important by their importance rating. A few occupations list fewer core tasks.
- AI use
- Anthropic Economic Index, release of June 2026, conversations from May 2026. "Did the task" is Anthropic's automation share, where the user directs Claude to do the work; "helped" is augmentation, where the user works with Claude to learn, check or iterate.
- Not measured
- What a particular business pays, and whether an AI system can do a task well. The AI figures count conversations about a task, not jobs replaced.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI use data from the Anthropic Economic Index by Anthropic, under CC BY. Wage and benefit data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What would an AI system cost for this work?
Put $59,210 beside the running cost of a system doing the tasks above, with the build counted in year one.
BLS wages May 2025 · O*NET 31.0 · Anthropic Economic Index