Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Idaho
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$34,464
after federal, FICA and Idaho tax
Tax takes
$7,416
17.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,697
Idaho costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Idaho — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$41,880
Kept after tax
$34,464
Worth in national money
$37,697
State rank
46
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Idaho pays this job a middle wage of $41,880, 46 of 50 states and about 24.64% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Idaho this is lower-paid work. Of 476 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 370. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,880 you keep $34,464 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $37,697 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $44,740, since top earners drag the number up.
- Idaho's $41,880 median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants places it 46 of 50 states, about 24.64% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Idaho reports, legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 370 of 476, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Idaho is $34,464 after the full tax stack, from $41,880. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $37,697 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $44,740 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $33,980 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $60,400 |
| This salary | $41,880 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Idaho | $34,464 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,831 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$825 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $40,180 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$997 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $41,880 as a midpoint for Idaho, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $33,980 and the ninetieth is $60,400 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Idaho's $34,464, worked from $41,880. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 370 of 476.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,697 uses one figure for the whole of Idaho. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 476 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 370.
- The Idaho median of $41,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $33,980 to $60,400. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Idaho take-home of $34,464, on $41,880 for work ranking 370 of 476 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 370 of 476 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,697, worked from $41,880, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Idaho address, on work sitting at 370 of 476 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $44,740 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $33,980 and the top tenth $60,400, so most people doing this work in Idaho sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Idaho is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $37,697 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Idaho then takes its own share, leaving $34,464.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 50 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Idaho is $44,740. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($33,980 to $60,400) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Idaho rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Idaho's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $37,697 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $34,464 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Idaho income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.