Let’s Talk Money - Admin Real Talk
Minimum Wage: If you’re making minimum wage in an administrative role, you either have zero experience and no college degree, or no college degree and little relative experience.
Salary: If you’re salaried, you’re either working at a start up and they can’t afford overtime OR you’re making over $130k USD a year at an established company.
Hourly (base rate): Entry Level (receptionists, office manager, office assistant, etc) - little to no experience = anywhere from floating around minimum wage to usually as high as $25/ hr. Mid Level (administrative assistants, lower level executive assistants, etc) - this is the level with the widest range, usually consists of hourly with overtime in the tech industry (again, $130k+ for salaried). For hourly, ranging anywhere from $30/hr - $55/hr for larger companies or late stage start ups. Smaller companies or early stage start ups will pay salary starting at $60k+, and starting at $90k+ for C-level support. Senior Level (Executive Assistant to “someone really senior”) - usually they are salaried to guarantee a higher wage, but I’ve met quite a few admins who don’t want a promotion because usually they will make less without the overtime. We’re looking at $150k+, and you can really go as high as high 200s and lower 300s base for those with overtime, and at a good company with good benefits and competitive compensation you’re looking at an additional $15k+ with equity and year end bonuses.
If we don’t talk about it, we’re the only one losing out on compensation. If you’re offered lower than the based $$$ I’ve described, especially in the tech space (ed-tech, fin tech, etc), ask for more because you deserve more! Well... at the very least, others are being paid more because you weren’t talking about it.
The data is from personal experience, talking with others, being a part of admin communities that talk about compensation, and aggressively looking at sites like Glassdoor and Comparably. Companies will tell you they are paying you a competitive salary, but WHO are they competing with? Ask them what percentile they are comparing themselves to, within their perspective industry.