Desk clerk vs office assistant

The differences between desk clerks and office assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an office assistant has an average salary of $31,517, which is higher than the $29,096 average annual salary of a desk clerk.

The top three skills for a desk clerk include reservations, front desk and customer service. The most important skills for an office assistant are data entry, patients, and customer service.

Desk clerk vs office assistant overview

	Desk Clerk	Office Assistant
Yearly salary	$29,096	$31,517
Hourly rate	$13.99	$15.15
Growth rate	-	-5%
Number of jobs	113,183	103,293
Job satisfaction	5	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 35%	Bachelor's Degree, 42%
Average age	37	47
Years of experience	-	2

What does a desk clerk do?

The desk clerk or general office clerk is an employee who works with little supervision from the manager. The duties and responsibilities of desk clerks vary depending on the industry they belong to. These may include but are not limited to answering phone calls, electronic correspondence, filing paperwork, taking and maintaining inventory levels, and setting calendars and schedules. They are expected to always offer excellent customer service. In hotels, they check-in and check-out their guests.

What does an office assistant do?

Office assistants perform various tasks to ensure that the business runs organized and efficient. An office assistant must possess excellent communication and multi-tasking skills to handle essential duties such as scheduling meetings, monitoring office supplies, storing documents and necessary paperwork, handling customer inquiries and appointments, coordinating in company events, and accomplishing other clerical tasks and administrative support. Office assistants are also required to communicate any observation that would possibly make an impact on the company's performance.

Desk clerk vs office assistant salary

Desk clerks and office assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Desk Clerk	Office Assistant
Average salary	$29,096	$31,517
Salary range	Between $23,000 And $36,000	Between $24,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	California	Vermont
Best paying company	Deborah's Place	Analysis Group
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Government

Differences between desk clerk and office assistant education

There are a few differences between a desk clerk and an office assistant in terms of educational background:

	Desk Clerk	Office Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 35%	Bachelor's Degree, 42%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	Western Carolina University

Desk clerk vs office assistant demographics

Here are the differences between desk clerks' and office assistants' demographics:

	Desk Clerk	Office Assistant
Average age	37	47
Gender ratio	Male, 30.0% Female, 70.0%	Male, 17.3% Female, 82.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 6.5% Hispanic or Latino, 16.5% Asian, 10.0% White, 55.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.3%	Black or African American, 10.1% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 8.3% White, 54.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	13%	6%

Differences between desk clerk and office assistant duties and responsibilities

Desk clerk example responsibilities.

Manage customer service issues with ease and charm and train other co workers in daily operations.
Assist with setting up meetings using PowerPoint presentations.
Book keeping, check ins, paperwork, PowerPoint, enter information into database.
Communicate with previous shift, organize shift and review reservations and update contingency
Position require guest reservations to be coordinate with housekeeping and maintenance needs.
Register new patients and updates existing patient demographics by collecting patient detail patient information including personal and financial information.

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Office assistant example responsibilities.

Manage filing, photocopying, collating, and faxing public and seal case documents.
Manage CI s SharePoint pages and serve as CI s subject matter expert on SharePoint working groups.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Compile payroll records, detect and reconcile discrepancies, accurately report outcomes using QuickBooks.
Maintain office services by organizing office operations and procedures, preparing payroll, controlling correspondences, and designing filing systems.
File client paperwork upholding HIPAA standards.

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Desk clerk vs office assistant skills

Common desk clerk skills

Reservations, 22%
Front Desk, 14%
Customer Service, 12%
Room Availability, 11%
Direct Calls, 6%
Telephone Calls, 5%

Common office assistant skills

Data Entry, 16%
Patients, 14%
Customer Service, 9%
Telephone Calls, 7%
Scheduling Appointments, 6%
Front Desk, 6%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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