Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between executive secretaries and department 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 a department secretary takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, an executive secretary has an average salary of $46,594, which is higher than the $35,473 average annual salary of a department secretary.
The top three skills for an executive secretary include office procedures, payroll and word processing. The most important skills for a department secretary are patients, customer service, and data entry.
| Executive Secretary | Department Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $46,594 | $35,473 |
| Hourly rate | $22.40 | $17.05 |
| Growth rate | -8% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 103,802 | 80,303 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| 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.
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.
Executive secretaries and department secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Executive Secretary | Department Secretary | |
| Average salary | $46,594 | $35,473 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $69,000 | Between $26,000 And $47,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Oakland, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | California |
| Best paying company | InfosysPublicService | Brigham and Women's Hospital |
| Best paying industry | Government | Government |
There are a few differences between an executive secretary and a department secretary in terms of educational background:
| Executive Secretary | Department Secretary | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 39% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Western Carolina University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between executive secretaries' and department secretaries' demographics:
| Executive Secretary | Department Secretary | |
| Average age | 49 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 7.7% Female, 92.3% | Male, 7.0% Female, 93.0% |
| 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, 9.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 3.8% White, 65.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 6% |