Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,307
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$12,813
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,555
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$62,120
Kept after tax
$49,307
Worth in national money
$45,555
State rank
9
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Massachusetts is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $62,120, which ranks 9 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 11.79% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 275 among 485 occupations Massachusetts publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $62,120, tax leaves $49,307 — and because Massachusetts is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $45,555 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $66,460, since top earners drag the number up.
- Massachusetts ranks 9 of 50 states publishing a median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, at $62,120 — about 11.79% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Position 275 of 485 in Massachusetts 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.
- After tax, $49,307 remains from the Massachusetts median of $62,120 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $45,555 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $66,460 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 | $42,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $100,430 |
| This salary | $62,120 |
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 Massachusetts | $49,307 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,093 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,053 |
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 | $58,653 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,740 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Massachusetts earn less than $62,120. The published range is $42,220 up to $100,430, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Massachusetts's $49,307, worked from $62,120. 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 275 of 485.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $45,555 uses one figure for the whole of Massachusetts. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 275.
- Reported values are medians; for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Massachusetts the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $42,220 to $100,430. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Massachusetts take-home of $49,307, on $62,120 for work ranking 275 of 485 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 275 of 485 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $45,555, worked from $62,120, 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 Massachusetts address, on work sitting at 275 of 485 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 $66,460 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $42,220 and the top tenth $100,430 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Massachusetts run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $45,555 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Massachusetts's own levy, $49,307 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 Massachusetts is $66,460. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($42,220) and the ninetieth ($100,430) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $45,555 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 $49,307 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.