Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,709
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$11,161
19.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,531
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$56,870
Kept after tax
$45,709
Worth in national money
$48,531
State rank
16
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Michigan's middle earner gets $56,870, putting the state 16 of 50 — about 2.34% ahead of the national figure.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 263 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Michigan does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $56,870 you keep $45,709, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $48,531 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $57,090, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For legal secretaries and administrative assistants, Michigan sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $56,870, ranking 16 of 50 and running about 2.34% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 263 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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 federal, FICA and Michigan income tax, retained pay for legal secretaries and administrative assistants on $56,870 is $45,709. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $48,531 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $57,090 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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 | $36,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,870 |
| Top tenth earn over | $78,510 |
| This salary | $56,870 |
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 Michigan | $45,709 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,875 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$735 |
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 | $54,174 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$889 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Michigan earn under $56,870 and half over. The published range runs $36,860 at the tenth percentile to $78,510 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Michigan's $45,709, worked from $56,870. 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 263 of 493.
- Two cautions on $48,531, the adjusted value of that $56,870 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 263 of 493 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Michigan, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,860 to $78,510; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Michigan take-home of $45,709, on $56,870 for work ranking 263 of 493 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 263 of 493 in the state.
- This $48,531 adjusted figure, worked from $56,870, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 263 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 263 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $36,860, the highest tenth $78,510, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $48,531.
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; Michigan then takes its own share, leaving $45,709.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($36,860) and the ninetieth ($78,510) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Michigan'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 $48,531 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 $45,709 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.