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The differences between clerical associates and receptionist secretaries can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a clerical associate and a receptionist secretary. Additionally, a clerical associate has an average salary of $30,024, which is higher than the $29,343 average annual salary of a receptionist secretary.
The top three skills for a clerical associate include patients, data entry and customer service. The most important skills for a receptionist secretary are patients, data entry, and phone calls.
| Clerical Associate | Receptionist Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $30,024 | $29,343 |
| Hourly rate | $14.43 | $14.11 |
| Growth rate | -5% | - |
| Number of jobs | 78,648 | 61,892 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 31% | High School Diploma, 37% |
| Average age | 47 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A clerical associate is someone who carries out administrative tasks. Clerical associates photocopy, distribute mail, put together mailings, send faxes, respond to emails, and type letters. The associate's order office supplies, convey messages to staff members, handle payroll, and manage conference rooms. They check records for information accuracy and policy and procedure conformity. It is part of their responsibilities to perform projects for patient care facilitation. Also, they provide support to the mental health clinic in terms of patient care and satisfaction survey distribution and collection.
A receptionist secretary is responsible for providing the best customer service, as well as attending to the needs of existing and potential clients. Duties of a receptionist secretary include managing customer's inquiries and forwarding important calls to the appropriate department, performing administrative and clerical tasks, escalating high-level of client's concerns to the management, keeping the reception area clean, monitoring office supplies and request stocks as needed, and maintaining an organized record of meetings and events. A receptionist secretary must have strong communication and multi-tasking skills to handle workloads of daily operations.
Clerical associates and receptionist secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Clerical Associate | Receptionist Secretary | |
| Average salary | $30,024 | $29,343 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $37,000 | Between $24,000 And $35,000 |
| Highest paying City | Bakersfield, CA | Lake Oswego, OR |
| Highest paying state | Alaska | Washington |
| Best paying company | GBS | Illinois Institute of Technology |
| Best paying industry | Government | Government |
There are a few differences between a clerical associate and a receptionist secretary in terms of educational background:
| Clerical Associate | Receptionist Secretary | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 31% | High School Diploma, 37% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | - |
Here are the differences between clerical associates' and receptionist secretaries' demographics:
| Clerical Associate | Receptionist Secretary | |
| Average age | 47 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 20.3% Female, 79.7% | Male, 5.6% Female, 94.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.3% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 22.0% Asian, 7.7% White, 53.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 21.1% Asian, 6.3% White, 56.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |