Department secretary vs administrative staff

The differences between department secretaries 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 a department secretary and an administrative staff. Additionally, an administrative staff has an average salary of $77,101, which is higher than the $35,473 average annual salary of a department secretary.

The top three skills for a department secretary include patients, customer service and data entry. The most important skills for an administrative staff are telephone calls, word processing, and travel arrangements.

Department secretary vs administrative staff overview

	Department Secretary	Administrative Staff
Yearly salary	$35,473	$77,101
Hourly rate	$17.05	$37.07
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	80,303	119,030
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Average age	50	50
Years of experience	2	2

What does a department secretary do?

A department secretary is responsible for providing administrative and clerical support to a specific department, ensuring smooth operations to maintain high-quality services to the customers and business partners. Department secretaries should have excellent knowledge of office management principles, especially on data processing procedures and customer service processes. They handle the scheduling of meetings and conferences, responding to customers' inquiries and concerns, directing visitors to the appropriate personnel and department, sorting files, and submitting business transactions and financial reports. A department secretary also recommends strategic procedures to generate more revenues and increase the company's profitability.

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.

Department secretary vs administrative staff salary

Department secretaries and administrative staff have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Department Secretary	Administrative Staff
Average salary	$35,473	$77,101
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $47,000	Between $58,000 And $101,000
Highest paying City	Oakland, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Brigham and Women's Hospital	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	Government	Professional

Differences between department secretary and administrative staff education

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

	Department Secretary	Administrative Staff
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	University of Pennsylvania

Department secretary vs administrative staff demographics

Here are the differences between department secretaries' and administrative staff' demographics:

	Department Secretary	Administrative Staff
Average age	50	50
Gender ratio	Male, 7.0% Female, 93.0%	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 department secretary and administrative staff duties and responsibilities

Department secretary example responsibilities.

Lead DoD team that assist Pakistan in gaining military capabilities to conduct counter-terrorism operations against the Taliban.
Volunteer for ISO auditor duties to ensure ISO procedures are followed for certification.
Perform payroll functions, including maintaining timekeeping information and processing and submitting payroll.
Prepare materials for monthly board of directors meetings including PowerPoint presentations, agendas and minutes.
Complete all payroll documentation, enter all payroll documentation into computer program, and submit to payroll department.
Create PowerPoint presentations used for business development, organize files and develop spreadsheets, fax reports and scan documents.

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

Department secretary vs administrative staff skills

Common department secretary skills

Patients, 22%
Customer Service, 10%
Data Entry, 7%
Medical Terminology, 7%
Patient Care, 4%
Word Processing, 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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Office and Administrative Industry
Department Secretary
Department Secretary vs Administrative Staff

Updated January 8, 2025

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