Office assistant vs office specialist

The differences between office assistants and office specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an office assistant and an office specialist. Additionally, an office specialist has an average salary of $33,477, which is higher than the $31,517 average annual salary of an office assistant.

The top three skills for an office assistant include data entry, patients and customer service. The most important skills for an office specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.

Office assistant vs office specialist overview

	Office Assistant	Office Specialist
Yearly salary	$31,517	$33,477
Hourly rate	$15.15	$16.09
Growth rate	-5%	-5%
Number of jobs	103,293	98,760
Job satisfaction	5	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 42%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

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.

What does an office specialist do?

An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.

Office assistant vs office specialist salary

Office assistants and office specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Office Assistant	Office Specialist
Average salary	$31,517	$33,477
Salary range	Between $24,000 And $41,000	Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Vermont	Massachusetts
Best paying company	Analysis Group	Brookhaven National Laboratory
Best paying industry	Government	Finance

Differences between office assistant and office specialist education

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

	Office Assistant	Office Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 42%	Bachelor's Degree, 44%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Office assistant vs office specialist demographics

Here are the differences between office assistants' and office specialists' demographics:

	Office Assistant	Office Specialist
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 17.3% Female, 82.7%	Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%
Race ratio	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%	Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between office assistant and office specialist duties and responsibilities

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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Office specialist example responsibilities.

Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.

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Office assistant vs office specialist skills

Common office assistant skills

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

Common office specialist skills

Customer Service, 18%
Data Entry, 10%
Patients, 9%
Office Equipment, 6%
Phone Calls, 6%
Word Processing, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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