Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,456
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$8,134
17.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,323
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$46,590
Kept after tax
$38,456
Worth in national money
$43,323
State rank
38
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Iowa pays this job a middle wage of $46,590, 38 of 50 states and about 16.16% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 346 among 493 occupations Iowa publishes pay for.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $46,590 you keep $38,456 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $43,323 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $48,800, since top earners drag the number up.
- Iowa's $46,590 median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants places it 38 of 50 states, about 16.16% 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.
- Position 346 of 493 in Iowa places legal secretaries and administrative assistants in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Retained pay in Iowa is $38,456 after the full tax stack, from $46,590. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $43,323 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $48,800 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 | $35,730 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $46,590 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,330 |
| This salary | $46,590 |
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 Iowa | $38,456 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $39,615 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,556 |
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 | $45,148 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,091 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $46,590 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,730 and the ninetieth is $64,330 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $38,456 take-home in Iowa comes from $46,590. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 346 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $43,323 uses one figure for the whole of Iowa. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 346.
- The Iowa median of $46,590 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,730 to $64,330. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $38,456, from $46,590, assumes a single Iowa filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 346 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 38 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $43,323, worked from $46,590, 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 Iowa address, on work sitting at 346 of 493 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 $48,800 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,730 at the tenth percentile, $64,330 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $43,323.
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; Iowa then takes its own share, leaving $38,456.
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 Iowa is $48,800. 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 ($35,730 to $64,330) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa'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 $43,323 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 $38,456 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.