Administrative specialist vs administrative staff

The differences between administrative specialists and administrative staff 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 staff. Additionally, an administrative staff has an average salary of $77,101, 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 staff are telephone calls, word processing, and travel arrangements.

Administrative specialist vs administrative staff overview

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Yearly salary	$38,758	$77,101
Hourly rate	$18.63	$37.07
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	71,227	119,030
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
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 staff do?

As the administrative staff, they primarily provide administrative and secretarial support for the department. Typically, they do report-writing, filing and scheduling, and payroll. They plan department weekly meetings, schedule conference calls, and work on solving administrative related concerns and issues. They do a complex task that involves multi-tasking from the preparation of department reports, analyzing data, and finding solutions. It is a requirement to be an experienced, collaborator, and trained cross-functional communicator. Moreover, other duties will include scheduling company-initiated activities, meetings, and events.

Administrative specialist vs administrative staff salary

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Average salary	$38,758	$77,101
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $58,000	Between $58,000 And $101,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Meta	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	Technology	Professional

Differences between administrative specialist and administrative staff education

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	University of Pennsylvania

Administrative specialist vs administrative staff demographics

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

	Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Average age	50	50
Gender ratio	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%	Male, 31.9% Female, 68.1%
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, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between administrative specialist and administrative staff 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 staff example responsibilities.

Support medical doctors, manage sensitive and confidential records pertaining to high risk patients with emphasis on accuracy.
Prepare PowerPoint presentations for management distribution.
Maintain payroll information by collect, calculate and enter data.
Prepare briefing slides and presentation material using PowerPoint and Visio.
Maintain accounting statements, databases, and other financial information such as payroll coding and budget preparation
Provide cloud base customer relationship management with Salesforce for optimization in coordination of the workforce development program and other community orient events

Administrative specialist vs administrative staff skills

Common administrative specialist skills

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

Common administrative staff skills

Telephone Calls, 19%
Word Processing, 16%
Travel Arrangements, 7%
Payroll, 6%
Personnel Actions, 6%
Financial Reports, 5%

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Administrative Specialist
Administrative Specialist vs Administrative Staff

Updated January 8, 2025

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