Administrative professional vs office specialist

The differences between administrative professionals and office specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an administrative professional and an office specialist. Additionally, an administrative professional has an average salary of $39,486, which is higher than the $33,477 average annual salary of an office specialist.

The top three skills for an administrative professional include customer service, powerpoint and data entry. The most important skills for an office specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.

Administrative professional vs office specialist overview

	Administrative Professional	Office Specialist
Yearly salary	$39,486	$33,477
Hourly rate	$18.98	$16.09
Growth rate	-8%	-5%
Number of jobs	87,372	98,760
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Average age	50	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does an administrative professional do?

An administrative professional specializes in performing administrative support and clerical tasks in a company or office, ensuring accuracy and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities typically revolve around managing schedules, arranging appointments and meetings, producing progress reports and presentations, delegating tasks, and attending meetings on behalf of executives or staff. There are also instances when an administrative assistant must answer calls and correspondence, respond to inquiries and concerns, welcome guests, relay messages, and provide staff with any support tasks or documents.

What does an office specialist do?

An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.

Administrative professional vs office specialist salary

Administrative professionals and office specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Administrative Professional	Office Specialist
Average salary	$39,486	$33,477
Salary range	Between $23,000 And $65,000	Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Massachusetts
Best paying company	HomeOwners Advantage	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between administrative professional and office specialist education

There are a few differences between an administrative professional and an office specialist in terms of educational background:

	Administrative Professional	Office Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Administrative professional vs office specialist demographics

Here are the differences between administrative professionals' and office specialists' demographics:

	Administrative Professional	Office Specialist
Average age	50	47
Gender ratio	Male, 17.4% Female, 82.6%	Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 3.8% White, 65.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between administrative professional and office specialist duties and responsibilities

Administrative professional example responsibilities.

Manage documentation, folder structures and user permissions in SharePoint.
Participate in committee meetings by preparing minutes and presentation summaries, planning meeting agendas, and organizing and managing meeting logistics.
Keep vendors accounts up to date, process payroll, collect on accounts receivable, keep accounts payable up to date.
Create document libraries for several hospital initiatives in SharePoint.
Receive and distribute payroll garnishment/bankruptcy notification letters to employees.
Develop and maintain relevant organizational charts, facilitating retrieval of staff data in PowerPoint format.

Office specialist example responsibilities.

Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.

Administrative professional vs office specialist skills

Common administrative professional skills

Customer Service, 16%
PowerPoint, 12%
Data Entry, 11%
Travel Arrangements, 7%
Administrative Tasks, 3%
Office Equipment, 3%

Common office specialist skills

Customer Service, 18%
Data Entry, 10%
Patients, 9%
Office Equipment, 6%
Phone Calls, 6%
Word Processing, 4%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Administrative Professional
Administrative Professional vs Office Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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