Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$48,992
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$12,448
20.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$47,124
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$61,440
Kept after tax
$48,992
Worth in national money
$47,124
State rank
10
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Maryland pays this job a middle wage of $61,440, ranking 10 of 50 states and sitting about 10.56% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Maryland, this sits in the middle: 258 of 489 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $61,440, tax leaves $48,992 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $47,124 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $63,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maryland's median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants is $61,440, about 10.56% above the national figure and 10 of 50 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 258 of 489 occupations in Maryland by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- After tax, $48,992 remains from the Maryland median of $61,440 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $47,124 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $63,410 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 | $45,940 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $61,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,390 |
| This salary | $61,440 |
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 Maryland | $48,992 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $51,547 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$5,922 |
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 | $58,260 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,162 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Maryland earn less than $61,440. The published range is $45,940 up to $84,390, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Maryland the take-home figure of $48,992, from $61,440, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 258 of 489 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maryland, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $47,124, the adjusted value of that $61,440 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 258 of 489 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Maryland the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $45,940 to $84,390. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Maryland is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $48,992 from $61,440. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 258 of 489 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maryland, so $47,124 — the adjusted value of that $61,440 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 258 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $63,410, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $45,940 at the bottom tenth to $84,390 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $47,124 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Maryland's own levy, $48,992 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Maryland is $63,410. 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 ($45,940 to $84,390) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maryland rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $47,124 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $48,992 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.