What is an Administrative Support Specialist?

An administrative support specialist performs various administrative and clerical tasks in an office. Essentially, their job function is to complete these tasks so that others don't have to, which helps employees focus on their job and increase the overall productivity of the company.

The work duties of an administrative support specialist vary depending on their employer, but in general, they perform tasks like scheduling meetings, maintaining the inventory of office supplies, receiving mail at the front desk, creating presentation materials, and organizing documents. They may also do data entry tasks, monitor the operating budget of the office, and draft memos as needed.

For some employers, the minimum requirement for this position is a high school diploma. But more employers now require their administrative support specialists to have a bachelor's degree in business or other related fields. Besides educational attainment, employers also want their candidates to have at least six months of related work experience.

On average, administrative support specialists make $35,000 a year or roughly $17 an hour. More experienced and skilled administrative support specialists can even earn up to $46,000 annually or more.

What Does an Administrative Support Specialist Do

There are certain skills that many administrative support specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, organizational skills and writing skills.

Learn more about what an Administrative Support Specialist does

How To Become an Administrative Support Specialist

If you're interested in becoming an administrative support specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 48.4% of administrative support specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.8% of administrative support specialists have master's degrees. Even though most administrative support specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become an Administrative Support Specialist
Top Administrative Support Specialist Jobs Near You

Administrative Support Specialist Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of executive assistant you might progress to a role such as office manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title business manager.

Administrative Support Specialist

Average Salary for an Administrative Support Specialist

Administrative Support Specialists in America make an average salary of $38,244 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $49,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $29,000 per year.
Average Administrative Support Specialist Salary
$38,244 Yearly
$18.39 hourly
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Roles and Types of Administrative Support Specialist

The role of an administrative support specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general administrative support specialist responsibilities:

  • Answer inbound and/or make outbound phone calls to address questions, or assist customers
  • Provide daily administrative support to multiple teams, including meetings, supplies, purchase orders, calendar coordination, domestic
  • Provides administrative support to director by composing various reports, letters

There are several types of administrative support specialist, including:

Administrative Coordinator

Role:

Administrative coordinators help the company to handle the general administration of the company. You will handle the basic administrative duties like answering incoming calls, interacting with the clients, and giving solutions when needed to their issues.

You will also be responsible for maintaining and making the office organized. Similarly, you will welcome visitors and direct them to the appropriate department. You will provide administrative support to the management. As a result, you will monitor and coordinate the accounting activities which you will prepare internal reports for management.

Good knowledge of finance and accounting to help you prepare internal reports for management is required. An administrative coordinator must have good interpersonal skills to be able to relate with clients and good communication skills. Similarly, you must be able to compose and edit written materials. You will make an average of $19.77 an hour or $41,129 yearly.

  • Average Salary: $40,599
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Administrative Support

Role:

Administrative support workers, sometimes called administrative support specialists, take care of clerical tasks in an office that helps their employer serve the public. Most administrative support workers work for government offices, although they can also work for private companies. They handle tasks that help organize the office such as storing files and inputting data into the payroll system. Administrative support workers need to be strong communicators because they handle internal communications, for example by scheduling meetings, and communicate with the public via phone and email. Administrative support workers are often highly knowledgeable about procedures in the office they work for so they can help customers and coworkers with their questions.

There are a few different ways to become an administrative support worker. About half have a bachelor's degree in business or administration. However, many do this job with only a high school diploma.

Administrative support workers usually need a few years of administrative experience, for example as assistants. Only then can they apply for an administrative support position, which usually pays around $33,023 a year.

  • Average Salary: $37,692
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Administrative Clerk

Role:

An administrative clerk performs tasks such as data entry, typing, organizing documents, answering emails and phones, and typically any basic clerical task you can imagine needs to be done in an office.

Following the lead of an office manager, administrative clerks make the most of their computer skills, their ability to multitask, and their independent spirit. They know how to manage their time and organize the world around them. They know how to communicate efficiently, and they probably dabble a little in bookkeeping as well.

As corporate culture is flourishing, administrative clerks are being assigned responsibilities regarding the cultural and social engagement of employees as well, such as planning off-site activities or making the office a cozier place with snacks and other niceties.

  • Average Salary: $32,327
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Administrative Support Specialist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active administrative support specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where administrative support specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Administrative Support Specialist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California7,107$47,952
2Texas3,170$40,587
3New York2,750$40,073
4Florida2,598$36,196
5Michigan1,920$36,873
6Washington1,898$46,848
7Pennsylvania1,871$37,312
8Massachusetts1,818$44,241
9Illinois1,732$37,514
10Virginia1,707$38,735
11Ohio1,449$35,312
12Missouri1,346$34,519
13Georgia1,334$35,853
14North Carolina1,300$34,021
15Maryland1,215$38,449
16New Jersey1,119$43,675
17Arizona1,051$37,878
18South Carolina1,051$34,633
19Minnesota1,037$40,164
20Wisconsin948$37,328
21Colorado947$38,239
22Tennessee868$36,032
23Indiana856$37,663
24Oregon806$43,104
25Alabama764$37,414
26Kansas735$37,305
27Oklahoma653$28,628
28Louisiana632$35,900
29Iowa618$34,110
30Arkansas599$31,756
31Utah571$39,678
32Connecticut505$51,296
33Nevada480$37,296
34Kentucky454$30,002
35New Mexico446$39,762
36Mississippi434$35,742
37Nebraska349$36,681
38Idaho316$31,357
39Maine265$35,923
40New Hampshire264$38,066
41South Dakota251$35,980
42Montana242$30,409
43West Virginia186$32,799
44Hawaii181$44,765
45Alaska180$44,965
46Rhode Island173$45,883
47Delaware163$31,528
48North Dakota119$42,236
49Wyoming107$40,464
50Vermont93$38,114

Administrative Support Specialist Education

Administrative Support Specialist Majors

Business
32.9 %
Accounting
6.6 %
Psychology
6.1 %

Administrative Support Specialist Degrees

Bachelors

48.4 %

Associate

26.9 %

High School Diploma

11.8 %

Top Colleges for Administrative Support Specialists

1. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$3,926

Enrollment

9,835

2. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

3. Ball State University

Muncie, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,896

Enrollment

15,529

4. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

5. Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,105

Enrollment

13,729

6. Cedar Crest College

Allentown, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$39,216

Enrollment

1,303

7. Morgan State University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,900

Enrollment

6,404

8. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

9. Siena Heights University

Adrian, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$27,124

Enrollment

2,035

10. University of Akron

Akron, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,463

Enrollment

13,676

Top Skills For an Administrative Support Specialist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.5% of administrative support specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and organizational skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Administrative Support Specialist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Administrative Support Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Administrative Support Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Administrative Support Specialist diversity

Administrative Support Specialist Gender Distribution

Female
Female
80%
Male
Male
21%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among administrative support specialists, 79.5% of them are women, while 20.5% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among administrative support specialists is White, which makes up 65.7% of all administrative support specialists.

  • The most common foreign language among administrative support specialists is Spanish at 62.9%.

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Best States For an Administrative Support Specialist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an administrative support specialist. The best states for people in this position are Connecticut, California, Washington, and Rhode Island. Administrative support specialists make the most in Connecticut with an average salary of $51,296. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $47,952 and $46,848, respectively. While administrative support specialists would only make an average of $45,883 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. District of Columbia

Total Administrative Support Specialist Jobs: 453
Highest 10% Earn:
$70,000
Location Quotient:
1.48

$51,893

Avg. Salary

View 453 Administrative Support Specialist Jobs In DC

2. Washington

Total Administrative Support Specialist Jobs: 1,898
Highest 10% Earn:
$59,000
Location Quotient:
1.42

$46,848

Avg. Salary

View 1,898 Administrative Support Specialist Jobs In WA

3. California

Total Administrative Support Specialist Jobs: 7,107
Highest 10% Earn:
$64,000
Location Quotient:
1.33

$47,952

Avg. Salary

View 7,107 Administrative Support Specialist Jobs In CA
Full List Of Best States For Administrative Support Specialists

How Do Administrative Support Specialists Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Administrative Support Specialist Employers

Most Common Employers For Administrative Support Specialist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1IBM$68,834$33.0911
2Dana-Farber Cancer Institute$46,906$22.5573
3Harley-Davidson$45,009$21.6412
4Intel$44,123$21.2113
5Lockheed Martin$42,774$20.5685
6University of Hawaii Foundation$39,964$19.2112
7University of North Carolina$39,217$18.8522
8USAF Police Alumni Association$39,105$18.809
9United States Marine Corps$39,006$18.7512
10US Air Conditioning Distributors$38,686$18.6027
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Updated April 6, 2023