Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between executive secretaries and assistant secretaries can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become an executive secretary, becoming an assistant secretary takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, an assistant secretary has an average salary of $107,366, which is higher than the $46,594 average annual salary of an executive secretary.
The top three skills for an executive secretary include office procedures, payroll and word processing. The most important skills for an assistant secretary are telephone calls, payroll, and scheduling appointments.
| Executive Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $46,594 | $107,366 |
| Hourly rate | $22.40 | $51.62 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 103,802 | 52,165 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 47% |
| Average age | 49 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 2 |
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.
An assistant secretary is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the daily operations of various departments and management personnel and ensure the efficiency of business functions. Assistant secretaries usually assist in business communications, responding to customers' inquiries and concerns, reaching out to existing clients to schedule appointments, welcoming guests on the office, and routing calls to the appropriate department. They also handle data entry procedures, updating customer information on the database, as well as creating reports on business and financial transactions.
Executive secretaries and assistant secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Executive Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Average salary | $46,594 | $107,366 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $69,000 | Between $38,000 And $302,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New York | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | InfosysPublicService | Elanco |
| Best paying industry | Government | - |
There are a few differences between an executive secretary and an assistant secretary in terms of educational background:
| Executive Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 47% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Western Carolina University | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between executive secretaries' and assistant secretaries' demographics:
| Executive Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Average age | 49 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 7.7% Female, 92.3% | Male, 21.7% Female, 78.3% |
| 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, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.1% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 6% |