Busy professionals like lawyers, physicians and business managers often don't have the time to accomplish all of miscellaneous tasks that they need to get done. Executive secretaries support top executives and managers and may perform tasks that are more complex than those carried out by other secretaries. Common job responsibilities of executive secretaries include research, statistical reporting and supervising lower-level clerical staff.
Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants earn significantly more than the average administrative assistant. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, executive secretaries earn an average annual income of $48,120, as of May 2011, while lower-level secretaries and administrative assistants earn $33,020 on average. The median income of executive secretaries is about $46,000, which means half of workers in the field made more than that and half earned less.
Higher levels of experience and education often result in higher salaries. Training through vocational education programs, technical colleges and community colleges, and work experience as a traditional secretary can help prepare someone to become an executive secretary. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that the top 10 percent of executive secretaries in terms of annual income make more than $71,020, as of May 2010, and the bottom 10 percent earn less than $30,320. The middle 50 percent of executive secretaries make between $36,520 and $57,700, which is equivalent to a wage of $17.56 to $27.74 an hour. In contrast, half of lower-level secretaries and administrative assistants earn between $25,350 and $39,440, according to the statistics bureau.
Executive secretaries and administrative assistants work in a variety of industries and pay can vary significantly from one type of employer to the next. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that executive secretaries employed by local governments earn about $48,000 as of May 2011, workers at colleges, universities and professional schools make $46,330 on average and those employed by state governments make an average of about $44,000. Executive secretaries working for professionals involved in financial investment activities earn $59,070 on average and workers employed by the U.S. Postal Service earn $63,210 on average, according to bureau figures.
New York is the best paying state for executive secretaries, according to federal figures. Workers in the state make an average of $60,310 per year. Workers in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts earn an average of $54,000 or more. Washington, D.C., has a higher concentration of executive secretaries than any state, and those in the District of Columbia make $53,160 on average, according to the statistics bureau.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 1,236,100 executive secretaries employed in 2010 and it expects that number to grow to 1,392,100 by 2020. This is an expected growth of 13 percent from 2010 to 2020, which is about as fast as the average for all professions. Executive secretaries who excel may have opportunities to become supervisors of office staff or office managers. Secretaries in the legal field can become paralegals with additional training.
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