Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$38,857
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$9,183
19.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,019
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$48,040
Kept after tax
$38,857
Worth in national money
$40,019
State rank
33
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays this job around $48,040 at the midpoint, 33 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 344 among 484 occupations Maine publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $48,040, tax leaves $38,857, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,019 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $51,010, since top earners drag the number up.
- For legal secretaries and administrative assistants the Maine median is $48,040, ranking 33 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 344 of 484 in Maine 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.
- Because Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for legal secretaries and administrative assistants — median $48,040 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $38,857 retained, $40,019 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $51,010 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,070 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,040 |
| Top tenth earn over | $63,120 |
| This salary | $48,040 |
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 Maine | $38,857 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $40,780 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,946 |
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 | $45,647 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,354 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $48,040 as a midpoint for Maine, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,070 and the ninetieth is $63,120 — 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 Maine's $38,857, worked from $48,040. 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 344 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $40,019 uses one figure for the whole of Maine. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 344.
- The Maine median of $48,040 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,070 to $63,120. 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 Maine take-home of $38,857, on $48,040 for work ranking 344 of 484 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 344 of 484 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $40,019, worked from $48,040, 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 Maine address, on work sitting at 344 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $51,010, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $35,070 and the top tenth $63,120, so most people doing this work in Maine sit within a fairly tight band.
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 $40,019.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Maine adds its own income tax on top — which is why $38,857 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Maine is $51,010. 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 ($35,070 to $63,120) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $40,019 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 $38,857 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.