Senior administrative specialist vs administrative staff

The differences between senior administrative specialists and administrative staff can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a senior administrative specialist, becoming an administrative staff takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, an administrative staff has an average salary of $77,101, which is higher than the $43,864 average annual salary of a senior administrative specialist.

The top three skills for a senior administrative specialist include powerpoint, logistics and travel arrangements. The most important skills for an administrative staff are telephone calls, word processing, and travel arrangements.

Senior administrative specialist vs administrative staff overview

	Senior Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Yearly salary	$43,864	$77,101
Hourly rate	$21.09	$37.07
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	57,049	119,030
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Average age	49	50
Years of experience	4	2

What does a senior administrative specialist do?

A senior administrative specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support business operations and ensuring the efficient and timely submission of outputs and business reports. Senior administrative specialists assist the executive management in tracking appointments and travels, coordinating with the client for scheduled meetings, negotiating contracts with suppliers and third-party vendors, and responding to clients' inquiries and concerns or leading them to the correct personnel for their business needs. A senior administrative specialist must be highly communicative and organizational to do tasks within deadlines and under minimal supervision.

What does an administrative staff do?

As the administrative staff, they primarily provide administrative and secretarial support for the department. Typically, they do report-writing, filing and scheduling, and payroll. They plan department weekly meetings, schedule conference calls, and work on solving administrative related concerns and issues. They do a complex task that involves multi-tasking from the preparation of department reports, analyzing data, and finding solutions. It is a requirement to be an experienced, collaborator, and trained cross-functional communicator. Moreover, other duties will include scheduling company-initiated activities, meetings, and events.

Senior administrative specialist vs administrative staff salary

Senior administrative specialists and administrative staff have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Average salary	$43,864	$77,101
Salary range	Between $28,000 And $68,000	Between $58,000 And $101,000
Highest paying City	Beverly Hills, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	California
Best paying company	BNY Mellon	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	-	Professional

Differences between senior administrative specialist and administrative staff education

There are a few differences between a senior administrative specialist and an administrative staff in terms of educational background:

	Senior Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	University of Pennsylvania

Senior administrative specialist vs administrative staff demographics

Here are the differences between senior administrative specialists' and administrative staff' demographics:

	Senior Administrative Specialist	Administrative Staff
Average age	49	50
Gender ratio	Male, 19.4% Female, 80.6%	Male, 31.9% Female, 68.1%
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, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	10%	6%

Differences between senior administrative specialist and administrative staff duties and responsibilities

Senior administrative specialist example responsibilities.

Oversee the activities of a contract coordinators including managing daily operations and providing additional training and guidance as needed.
Perform payroll calculation and administrative tasks to include processing of deductions and additions as required.
Maintain knowledge of and assure adherence to HIPAA rules and regulations.
Assist in the transition of project data from multiple share drives to the appropriate location within SharePoint.
Maintain SharePoint sites, resulting in improve communications with cross-functional teams.
Develop PowerPoint educational presentations for national, regional, and local-level direct service providers.

Administrative staff example responsibilities.

Support medical doctors, manage sensitive and confidential records pertaining to high risk patients with emphasis on accuracy.
Prepare PowerPoint presentations for management distribution.
Maintain payroll information by collect, calculate and enter data.
Prepare briefing slides and presentation material using PowerPoint and Visio.
Maintain accounting statements, databases, and other financial information such as payroll coding and budget preparation
Provide cloud base customer relationship management with Salesforce for optimization in coordination of the workforce development program and other community orient events

Senior administrative specialist vs administrative staff skills

Common senior administrative specialist skills

PowerPoint, 13%
Logistics, 7%
Travel Arrangements, 5%
Office Procedures, 5%
Data Entry, 5%
SR, 5%

Common administrative staff skills

Telephone Calls, 19%
Word Processing, 16%
Travel Arrangements, 7%
Payroll, 6%
Personnel Actions, 6%
Financial Reports, 5%

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Senior Administrative Specialist
Senior Administrative Specialist vs Administrative Staff

Updated January 8, 2025

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