Administrative Assistant Salary Benchmarks

Executive Assistants typically earn significantly more than Administrative Assistants due to the higher complexity of supporting senior executives and greater strategic involvement. Administrative Assistants often transition into Executive Assistant roles as they gain experience and organizational trust.

Administrative Assistants frequently grow into Executive Assistant, Office Manager, or Operations roles. Those with strong project management skills may move into Chief of Staff positions at smaller SaaS companies.

Benefits are a significant component of the Administrative Assistant package. With a median base of $37,440, total compensation is enhanced by health insurance, commuter benefits, and office perks standard at most SaaS employers.

On a median base salary of $37,440, an Administrative Assistant at a US SaaS company makes about $3,120 a month, $1,440 every two weeks, or $18.00 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $2,537–$3,813 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 109 verified SaaS Administrative Assistant salaries, the 25th percentile is $30,441 and the median is $37,440. A Administrative Assistant at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $45,760 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $37,440, the fully loaded cost of a US Administrative Assistant is roughly $46,800–$52,416 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.