Compared with the local labor market
Secretary pay vs. the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area
Across all employers in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area, the median wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive — about 122,680 people — is $51,440. Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services pays a median base salary of $47,371 for this role, 8% below that figure — about the 34th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services sits in the local pay range
$37,440
$45,140
$51,440
$61,150
$70,160
Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services median · $47,371
The bar is the range of annual wages for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive across every employer in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive — about 1,706,790 people — is $47,540. Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services’s median base salary is in line withthat national figure, about the 50th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$33,280
$38,830
$47,540
$58,000
$66,350
Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services median · $47,371
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services is $56,995, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.