How to Read BLS Wage Data for Executive Assistant Roles

TL;DR

BLS wage data are the most reliable public benchmark for executive assistant pay, but only if the occupation code, the sample, and the wage concept are read correctly. The May 2025 OEWS release reports executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at 459,910 jobs, a $38.05 mean hourly wage, and a $79,140 mean annual wage. Those figures describe wage and salary workers, not remote service prices, and they exclude the self-employed.

Use OEWS to frame a budget, then use the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release to add benefits when you compare an employee with a service fee. Do not average unlike occupations together, and do not treat a national mean as the rate for one specific hire.

Methodology

This brief reviews two BLS programs and their documentation. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program measures employment and wages by occupation and geography. The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) program measures the full cost of compensation, including benefits. Both are published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The review focuses on the occupation that best matches executive support: executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, SOC code 43-6011. Where a figure is quoted, it is reported as published. Where this article performs arithmetic, it is labeled as a calculation. This is a method brief, not a compensation survey.

Why the occupation code matters

The Standard Occupational Classification system groups similar jobs. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants are one occupation. Legal secretaries, medical secretaries, and other secretaries are separate occupations with different wages and different work.

A team that quotes "secretary" wages without checking the code will usually quote a figure that is too low, because the broader secretaries group includes roles with lower pay. In the May 2025 data, the broad group of secretaries and administrative assistants had a mean annual wage of $53,310, while the executive subgroup had a mean annual wage of $79,140. The gap is large enough to change a hiring conversation.

What OEWS measures

OEWS is an employer survey. It estimates employment and wages for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments. It excludes the self-employed, owners and partners in unincorporated firms, household workers, and unpaid family workers.

Wages are straight-time gross pay. They include base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, incentive pay, commissions, production bonuses, and tips. They exclude overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, employer benefit costs, and tuition reimbursements.

Two consequences follow. First, an OEWS wage is not a total compensation figure. Second, an OEWS wage is not a price for a service delivered by a contractor. Both are useful, but they answer different questions.

Reading the May 2025 numbers

The May 2025 OEWS release reports the executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants occupation at 459,910 jobs, a $38.05 mean hourly wage, a $79,140 mean annual wage, and a $36.82 median hourly wage. The annual figure is computed by multiplying the hourly rate by a typical 2,080-hour work year.

Notice the gap between mean and median. The mean hourly wage is $38.05 and the median is $36.82. A small number of very high earners pull the mean upward. For a single hire, the median is often the better central estimate, but both are legitimate depending on the question.

Also notice what the number does not say. It does not say what an executive assistant earns in a specific city, industry, or company size. OEWS publishes state and metropolitan estimates and industry-specific estimates, and those are the right tables to consult for a local benchmark.

Adding benefits with ECEC

To compare an employee's cost with a service fee, add benefits. The ECEC release for June 2026 reports that private industry employer compensation costs averaged $46.89 per hour worked. Wages and salaries averaged $32.82 and accounted for 70.0 percent of the total, while benefit costs averaged $14.07 and accounted for 30.0 percent.

In other words, benefits are roughly three-tenths of private-industry compensation cost. A comparison that uses salary alone understates the employer's cost by about 40 percent relative to wages.

A simple loaded-cost calculation illustrates the idea. If an executive assistant's salary is $79,140, and benefits are approximately 42.9 percent of wages (the June 2026 private-industry ratio of $14.07 in benefits to $32.82 in wages), the loaded cost is about $113,000. That is a calculation using published ratios, not a BLS figure for this occupation.

Concept	What it includes	What it excludes
OEWS wage	Straight-time wages, incentives, tips	Overtime, benefits, self-employed
ECEC compensation	Wages plus benefits	Self-employed, specific-role pricing
Service fee	Provider scope, management, coverage	Employee benefits unless included

Common misreadings

The first misreading is using the broad secretaries group when the question is about executive support. The second is treating an annual mean as a starting salary; it is an average of everyone in the occupation, including people with decades of experience.

The third misreading is comparing a service fee with an unloaded salary. A provider fee may include recruiting, management, backup coverage, tools, payroll taxes, and margin. An employee comparison must include benefits and employer obligations to be fair.

The fourth misreading is ignoring the sample. OEWS estimates are modeled from a sample and carry relative standard errors. Small occupations in small geographies can have wide error bands. When the estimate is flagged as less reliable, treat it as directional.

Worked example

Suppose an executive support team wants to budget for a new role in a large metropolitan area. Step one is to pull the OEWS estimate for the occupation in that area, not the national figure. Step two is to decide whether the comparison is against an employee or a service. Step three is to add benefits if the comparison is against an employee. Step four is to state the assumptions in writing.

The output is a range, not a single number. Presenting a range with its source is more useful than presenting a precise figure that implies false confidence.

Limitations

OEWS does not separate remote from on-site work. It does not capture equity compensation, which matters for some executive support roles. It does not price a specific provider's scope, availability, or management overhead. And it does not measure performance.

For all these reasons, a wage benchmark should inform a budget conversation, not conclude it. The right benchmark for a specific engagement depends on scope, hours, time-zone coverage, and the experience required.

Operational implications

Use OEWS to set the lower bound of a realistic budget. Use ECEC to convert an employee offer into a comparable loaded cost. Use a local or industry estimate when the role is geographically specific. Then state the scope assumptions that the benchmark cannot capture.

If a service fee is below the loaded employee cost, that is a signal to examine scope and coverage, not an automatic bargain. If it is far above, check whether the scope includes management, backup coverage, and tools. For the broader cost picture, see our remote executive support ROI benchmarks and our guide to executive assistant salary.

Sources

1. BLS Occupational Employment and Wages News Release, May 2025, checked October 22, 2026.
2. BLS OEWS occupation profile, executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, checked October 22, 2026.
3. BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Summary, June 2026, checked October 22, 2026.
4. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, secretaries and administrative assistants, checked October 22, 2026.
5. BLS OEWS questions and answers, checked October 22, 2026.
6. BLS Standard Occupational Classification, checked October 22, 2026.

This brief offers a method for reading public data. It is not compensation advice. Use current source tables and qualified review for a specific hiring decision.