Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between executive/personal assistants and executive secretaries can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an executive/personal assistant and an executive secretary. Additionally, an executive/personal assistant has an average salary of $64,511, which is higher than the $46,594 average annual salary of an executive secretary.
The top three skills for an executive/personal assistant include financial statements, powerpoint and calendar management. The most important skills for an executive secretary are office procedures, payroll, and word processing.
| Executive/Personal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $64,511 | $46,594 |
| Hourly rate | $31.01 | $22.40 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 110,560 | 103,802 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Average age | 49 | 49 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
An executive/personal assistant is responsible for performing secretarial duties, including administrative and clerical tasks as needed, helping the business operations run smoothly and efficiently. Executive/personal assistants receive and respond to client's calls and inquiries, schedule and maintain an organized record of executive and staff meetings, sorting files and documents, and attending general meetings on behalf of the executives. They should also have excellent communication and critical-thinking skills, especially on providing recommendations for business decisions and profitable opportunities. An executive/personal assistant creates expense reports, monitors the adequacy of stock inventory, and coordinates with planning company events.
The primary role of executive secretaries is to provide clerical support to an executive or a high-level administrator. They are the ones who conduct the different administrative support tasks for executives which include managing the calendar of executives, answering phone calls, conducting research and sorting important files, preparing and proofreading monthly reports and industry documents that are relevant to the role of executives, and performing some bookkeeping activities such as invoice creation and office inventory tracking.
Executive/personal assistants and executive secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Executive/Personal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Average salary | $64,511 | $46,594 |
| Salary range | Between $44,000 And $92,000 | Between $31,000 And $69,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Washington | New York |
| Best paying company | ONE Sotheby's International Realty | InfosysPublicService |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Government |
There are a few differences between an executive/personal assistant and an executive secretary in terms of educational background:
| Executive/Personal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Western Carolina University | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between executive/personal assistants' and executive secretaries' demographics:
| Executive/Personal Assistant | Executive Secretary | |
| Average age | 49 | 49 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 15.5% Female, 84.5% | Male, 7.7% Female, 92.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |