Administrative Assistant I

Across all employers in California, the median wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive — about 158,630 people — is $55,400. Secretary of State's Office pays a median base salary of $71,565 for this role, 29% above that figure — about the 82nd percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 2 of 3 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at Secretary of State's Office is $69,172, 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.

Administrative Assistant I is held in 45 California departments. In Secretary of State's Office, the median of $69,172 ranks #15 of 45.

This role is reported in 31 jurisdictions. In California, the median of $71,808 ranks #8 of 31. See Administrative Assistant across all of California →