Administrative Assistant Salary varies due to various factors. While the location matters, your skills and qualifications, are also essential criteria for determining your salary.
People who lack college credentials to join a service of choice can now climb the corporate ladder with the jobs of administrative assistant. If you hold a high school diploma, and you also have some business knowledge, you would be able to start working as a business administrative assistant. It will not only help you in earning good money, but you can also start learning about the corporate culture as your grow.
Qualifications and Skills
For the position of administrative assistant, companies are generally looking for candidates with exceptional data entry and typing skills, computer knowledge, proficiency with communication (oral), and excellent spelling and grammar. If you have failed to gain this knowledge in your high school, you can try some certificate courses or 2-years programs offered at various community colleges and business schools. With these qualifications and skills, you can expect an average salary of USD 41,650 per annum, according to the reports of Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2009.
Excellent Employers
The best place to find administrative assistant jobs is to look for workplaces or employers that hire the highest number of recruits in this field. These primarily include universities and colleges; state government and local government offices. It has been estimated that colleges employ over 91,000administratuev assistants per year, and they pay an average salary of $20 per hour. There are other places, such as the Postal Services that offer a pay of $30 per hour, which is the highest. Peripheral equipment and computer manufacturers require administrative assistants too, and their median wage is $27 per hour.
Talent and Expertise
In order to earn the highest range of administrative assistant salary, you must enhance your skills by learning things that are very much in demand. For instance, knowledge of computers, particularly Microsoft Office is the most required expertise that helps in communicating efficiently. If you have a sound knowledge of computers, you can easily earn a compensation of $30,000 to $44,000 per annum. This is the report of PayScale, as of 2011. Accounting is a basic requirement that will help in keeping and maintaining company books, and it pays an average wage of $30,000 to $41,600 per year. Another notable job area is customer relationship and management that allows you to build goodwill with customers and helps in increasing demand of the company’s products and services. You can easily earn a salary of $67,000 to $38,000 annually.
Opportunities for Growth
As administrative assistants, individuals can grow over time, with their company knowledge and skills, which eventually grants them greater responsibilities and high salaries. As you start off with the job of administrative assistant, you will grow, step by step, to become office managers. You can also become a professional trainer, experiences in teaching specific computer applications, for which you may be called in to various schools as new assistants. If you have certification for a national organization that can document your knowledge on paper, you can even earn better compensation. Once you become a certified administrative professional, you will stand better chances of earning a higher compensation.
The growth of average administrative assistant salary has been good, over the years. The figure is likely to increase in the coming years.