Administrative specialist vs administrative professional

The differences between administrative specialists and administrative professionals 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 specialist and an administrative professional. Additionally, an administrative professional has an average salary of $39,486, which is higher than the $38,758 average annual salary of an administrative specialist.

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

Administrative specialist vs administrative professional overview

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Professional
Yearly salary	$38,758	$39,486
Hourly rate	$18.63	$18.98
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	71,227	87,372
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Average age	50	50
Years of experience	2	2

What does an administrative specialist do?

An administrative specialist is in charge of various clerical tasks to support supervisors and management staff. Their responsibility is to act as the main point of contact among clients through answering calls and responding to inquiries, managing schedules, arranging appointments and travel, addressing complaints and resolving internal issues, managing payroll, and keeping an organized database. Furthermore, an administrative specialist can also conduct research and analysis, prepare reports and other forms of documentation, and coordinate workflow in a particular area.

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.

Administrative specialist vs administrative professional salary

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Professional
Average salary	$38,758	$39,486
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $58,000	Between $23,000 And $65,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	Connecticut
Best paying company	Meta	HomeOwners Advantage
Best paying industry	Technology	-

Differences between administrative specialist and administrative professional education

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Professional
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Administrative specialist vs administrative professional demographics

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Professional
Average age	50	50
Gender ratio	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%	Male, 17.4% Female, 82.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 3.8% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	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%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between administrative specialist and administrative professional duties and responsibilities

Administrative specialist example responsibilities.

Participate in committee meetings by preparing minutes and presentation summaries, planning meeting agendas, and organizing and managing meeting logistics.
Process incoming and outgoing medical records with newly implement HIPAA requirements.
Maintain personnel records, electronic databases, oversee and administer department SharePoint website.
Redesign and reformat PowerPoint presentations, customize individual client presentations for specific look & feel.
Create and successfully implement a new faculty form to collect necessary information for payroll forms.
Conduct training of new personnel using spreadsheets & PowerPoint presentations to ensure compliance of organizational policies & procedures.

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.

Administrative specialist vs administrative professional skills

Common administrative specialist skills

Customer Service, 14%
Data Entry, 6%
PowerPoint, 6%
Office Procedures, 5%
Patients, 5%
Payroll, 4%

Common administrative professional skills

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

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Administrative Specialist
Administrative Specialist vs Administrative Professional

Updated January 8, 2025

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