Principal secretary vs staff assistant

The differences between principal secretaries and staff assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a principal secretary and a staff assistant. Additionally, a staff assistant has an average salary of $41,778, which is higher than the $33,699 average annual salary of a principal secretary.

The top three skills for a principal secretary include purchase orders, schedule appointments and office equipment. The most important skills for a staff assistant are customer service, patients, and data entry.

Principal secretary vs staff assistant overview

	Principal Secretary	Staff Assistant
Yearly salary	$33,699	$41,778
Hourly rate	$16.20	$20.09
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	46,207	126,202
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	50	50
Years of experience	2	2

Principal secretary vs staff assistant salary

Principal secretaries and staff assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Principal Secretary	Staff Assistant
Average salary	$33,699	$41,778
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $41,000	Between $27,000 And $63,000
Highest paying City	Milpitas, CA	Bridgewater, MA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Connecticut
Best paying company	Edina Public Schools	Massasoit Community College
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Professional

Differences between principal secretary and staff assistant education

There are a few differences between a principal secretary and a staff assistant in terms of educational background:

	Principal Secretary	Staff Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 39%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Principal secretary vs staff assistant demographics

Here are the differences between principal secretaries' and staff assistants' demographics:

	Principal Secretary	Staff Assistant
Average age	50	50
Gender ratio	Male, 5.0% Female, 95.0%	Male, 29.4% Female, 70.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	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	6%	6%

Differences between principal secretary and staff assistant duties and responsibilities

Principal secretary example responsibilities.

Manage high volume of requests and correspondence from executives and colleagues, pharmaceutical representatives, patients and outside physicians.
Maintain compliance with HIPPA law.
Work closely with Medicare and Medicaid.
Maintain confidentiality laws of HIPAA and OSHA.
Create spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations for faculty meetings on behalf of the principal.
Prepare charts, vital sight, injections, EKG, phlebotomy, fill prescriptions and hospital admitting.

Staff assistant example responsibilities.

Manage, troubleshoot, install and resolve hardware, software configurations, and network relate issues.
Manage candidate Facebook page and facilitate other advertising.
Manage fireworks inventory through QuickBooks and process customer wholesale orders.
Orchestrate special events and reservations; manage customer relations and provide exemplary service to all customers.
Conduct weekly groups for newly refer veterans and potential landlords on the HUD VASH searching process.
Supervise the daily operations, office work and customer service in a windows replacement company).

Principal secretary vs staff assistant skills

Common principal secretary skills

Purchase Orders, 16%
Schedule Appointments, 13%
Office Equipment, 8%
Financial Reports, 6%
Word Processing, 6%
Administrative Tasks, 5%

Common staff assistant skills

Customer Service, 15%
Patients, 10%
Data Entry, 7%
PowerPoint, 5%
Office Procedures, 5%
Veterans, 4%