Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between administrative supports 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 support and an administrative staff. Additionally, an administrative staff has an average salary of $77,101, which is higher than the $37,692 average annual salary of an administrative support.
The top three skills for an administrative support include customer service, administrative tasks and data entry. The most important skills for an administrative staff are telephone calls, word processing, and travel arrangements.
| Administrative Support | Administrative Staff | |
| Yearly salary | $37,692 | $77,101 |
| Hourly rate | $18.12 | $37.07 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 114,480 | 119,030 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Average age | 50 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Administrative support specialists provide different types of governmental assistance. They carry out varied clerical duties in almost all industries. Most of these duties revolve around supervising and distributing information within an organization. This typically includes taking memos, answering phone calls, and managing, storing, and organizing files. They are also responsible for receiving and sending correspondence and greeting customers and clients. Some administrative support may be required to have vast professional knowledge as their duties are more specialized than the others.
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 supports and administrative staff have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Administrative Support | Administrative Staff | |
| Average salary | $37,692 | $77,101 |
| Salary range | Between $26,000 And $53,000 | Between $58,000 And $101,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | California |
| Best paying company | Pacific Investment Management Company LLC | NVIDIA |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Professional |
There are a few differences between an administrative support and an administrative staff in terms of educational background:
| Administrative Support | Administrative Staff | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Western Carolina University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between administrative supports' and administrative staff' demographics:
| Administrative Support | Administrative Staff | |
| Average age | 50 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 20.4% Female, 79.6% | Male, 31.9% Female, 68.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.1% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 15.9% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.6% 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% |