Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between office clerical assistants and administrative office assistants 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 clerical assistant and an administrative office assistant. Additionally, an administrative office assistant has an average salary of $33,318, which is higher than the $28,373 average annual salary of an office clerical assistant.
The top three skills for an office clerical assistant include data entry, customer service and patients. The most important skills for an administrative office assistant are customer service, data entry, and phone calls.
| Office Clerical Assistant | Administrative Office Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $28,373 | $33,318 |
| Hourly rate | $13.64 | $16.02 |
| Growth rate | -5% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 83,010 | 81,528 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Average age | 47 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Office clerical assistants are professionals who are responsible for performing a variety of clerical tasks within an organization's office. These assistants must provide office assistance functions such as responding to emails, filing papers, and preparing schedules while handling customers at the front desk. They are required to use automated word processing equipment to produce correspondence, forms, or reports. Clerical assistants must also answer high profile telephone calls and forward the messages to the appropriate person.
An administrative office assistant is responsible for performing administrative duties to assist in daily management operations. These duties include taking calls and responding to client and customers' inquiries and concerns, scheduling meetings and conferences, organizing files and submitting required documents, sorting invoices for release, processing travel arrangements, receiving emails, forwarding reports to the appropriate department, and coordinating with company's events. An administrative assistant must be detail-oriented, as well as having excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills to perform duties even under minimal supervision.
Office clerical assistants and administrative office assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Office Clerical Assistant | Administrative Office Assistant | |
| Average salary | $28,373 | $33,318 |
| Salary range | Between $22,000 And $35,000 | Between $25,000 And $43,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Rosa, CA | Sacramento, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES | Buckley King |
| Best paying industry | Government | Government |
There are a few differences between an office clerical assistant and an administrative office assistant in terms of educational background:
| Office Clerical Assistant | Administrative Office Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Western Carolina University | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between office clerical assistants' and administrative office assistants' demographics:
| Office Clerical Assistant | Administrative Office Assistant | |
| Average age | 47 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 18.5% Female, 81.5% | Male, 14.7% Female, 85.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 7.4% White, 56.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% | Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.1% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |