Staff assistant vs administrative office assistant

The differences between staff 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 a staff assistant and an administrative office assistant. Additionally, a staff assistant has an average salary of $41,778, which is higher than the $33,318 average annual salary of an administrative office assistant.

The top three skills for a staff assistant include customer service, patients and data entry. The most important skills for an administrative office assistant are customer service, data entry, and phone calls.

Staff assistant vs administrative office assistant overview

	Staff Assistant	Administrative Office Assistant
Yearly salary	$41,778	$33,318
Hourly rate	$20.09	$16.02
Growth rate	-8%	-8%
Number of jobs	126,202	81,528
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Average age	50	50
Years of experience	2	2

What does a staff assistant do?

A staff assistant is a company employee who is tasked to support and help staff members to adequately fill their roles and assuring that the organization is running efficiently. Working under an administrative supervisor, an assistant's tasks include answering phone calls, scheduling meetings or appointments, and booking the necessary travels. Moreover, an assistant should have excellent skills in written and verbal communication and is highly organized with minimal supervision. An assistant may be able to work in a wide variety of settings, which includes healthcare facilities and government offices.

What does an administrative office assistant do?

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.

Staff assistant vs administrative office assistant salary

Staff assistants and administrative office assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Staff Assistant	Administrative Office Assistant
Average salary	$41,778	$33,318
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $63,000	Between $25,000 And $43,000
Highest paying City	Bridgewater, MA	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Hawaii
Best paying company	Massasoit Community College	Buckley King
Best paying industry	Professional	Government

Differences between staff assistant and administrative office assistant education

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

	Staff Assistant	Administrative Office Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 46%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Western Carolina University

Staff assistant vs administrative office assistant demographics

Here are the differences between staff assistants' and administrative office assistants' demographics:

	Staff Assistant	Administrative Office Assistant
Average age	50	50
Gender ratio	Male, 29.4% Female, 70.6%	Male, 14.7% Female, 85.3%
Race ratio	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%	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%

Differences between staff assistant and administrative office assistant duties and responsibilities

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).

Administrative office assistant example responsibilities.

Develop and manage external financial relationships between clients and the IRS.
Manage the receptionist area, including greeting visitors and responding to telephone and in-person requests for information.
Establish and maintain effective communications and cohesive working relationships with company associates, telephone and walk-in customers, and site visitors.
Dust offices and clean windows and doors.
Update information in CATT database, as well as make appointments for therapists and psychiatrists in Sharepoint.
Create electronic filing system to alleviate paper copies and recruit fellow co-workers to get on board with SharePoint.

Staff assistant vs administrative office assistant skills

Common staff assistant skills

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

Common administrative office assistant skills

Customer Service, 14%
Data Entry, 13%
Phone Calls, 7%
Payroll, 5%
PowerPoint, 4%
Database Management, 4%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Staff Assistant
Staff Assistant vs Administrative Office Assistant

Updated January 8, 2025

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