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The differences between receptionist secretaries and assistant secretaries can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a receptionist secretary and an assistant secretary. Additionally, an assistant secretary has an average salary of $107,366, which is higher than the $29,343 average annual salary of a receptionist secretary.
The top three skills for a receptionist secretary include patients, data entry and phone calls. The most important skills for an assistant secretary are telephone calls, payroll, and scheduling appointments.
| Receptionist Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Yearly salary | $29,343 | $107,366 |
| Hourly rate | $14.11 | $51.62 |
| Growth rate | - | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 61,892 | 52,165 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 37% | Bachelor's Degree, 47% |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A receptionist secretary is responsible for providing the best customer service, as well as attending to the needs of existing and potential clients. Duties of a receptionist secretary include managing customer's inquiries and forwarding important calls to the appropriate department, performing administrative and clerical tasks, escalating high-level of client's concerns to the management, keeping the reception area clean, monitoring office supplies and request stocks as needed, and maintaining an organized record of meetings and events. A receptionist secretary must have strong communication and multi-tasking skills to handle workloads of daily operations.
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.
Receptionist secretaries and assistant secretaries have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Receptionist Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Average salary | $29,343 | $107,366 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $35,000 | Between $38,000 And $302,000 |
| Highest paying City | Lake Oswego, OR | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Rhode Island |
| Best paying company | Illinois Institute of Technology | Elanco |
| Best paying industry | Government | - |
There are a few differences between a receptionist secretary and an assistant secretary in terms of educational background:
| Receptionist Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 37% | Bachelor's Degree, 47% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between receptionist secretaries' and assistant secretaries' demographics:
| Receptionist Secretary | Assistant Secretary | |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 5.6% Female, 94.4% | Male, 21.7% Female, 78.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 21.1% Asian, 6.3% White, 56.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | 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% |