Administrative assistant salary varies due to various factors. While location is important, your skills and qualifications are also important criteria in determining your salary.
People who don’t have the college credentials to join the service of choice can now climb the corporate ladder with administrative assistant jobs. If you have a high school diploma and some business knowledge, you could start working as a business administrative assistant. Not only will it help you earn good money, but you can also start learning about the corporate culture as you grow.
Qualifications and skills
For the position of administrative assistant, companies are generally looking for candidates with exceptional data entry and typing skills, computer skills, communication (oral) and excellent spelling and grammar. If you weren’t able to acquire this knowledge in your high school, you can try some certificate courses or two-year programs offered at various community colleges and business schools. With these qualifications and skills, you can expect an average salary of $41,650 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2009.
Great employers
The best place to find administrative assistant jobs is to search for jobs or employers that employ the most workers in this field. This primarily includes universities and colleges; state government and local government offices. Colleges are estimated to employ over 91,000 administrative assistants annually, paying an average salary of $20 an hour. There are other places, such as the postal service, that offer wages of $30 an hour, at most. Peripheral and computer manufacturers are also in demand for administrative assistants, with a median salary of $27 per hour.
Talent and expertise
To earn the highest administrative assistant salary range, you need to improve your skills by learning things that are in high demand. For example, knowledge of computers, especially Microsoft Office, is the most necessary expertise that helps in effective communication. If you know computers well, you can easily earn a fee of $30,000 to $44,000 per year. This is a 2011 PayScale report.Accounting is a basic requirement that will help with bookkeeping and maintenance, and pays an average salary of $30,000 to $41,600 per year. Another important area of work is customer relationship and management which allows you to build goodwill with customers and helps increase demand for the company’s products and services. You can easily earn a salary of $67,000 to $38,000 per year.
Opportunities for growth
As administrative assistants, individuals can grow over time, with their knowledge and skills within the company, eventually giving them greater responsibilities and higher salaries. As you start as an administrative assistant, you will progress, step by step, to office managers. You can also become a professional trainer, experience in teaching specific computer applications, due to which you can be invited to various schools as new assistants. If you are certified by a national organization that can document your knowledge on paper, you may even earn better compensation. Once you become a Certified Administrative Professional, you’ll have a better chance of earning more compensation.
The growth in the average administrative assistant salary has been good over the years. The figure is likely to increase in the coming years.