Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,172
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$13,008
20.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,979
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$63,180
Kept after tax
$50,172
Worth in national money
$50,979
State rank
5
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Minnesota is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $63,180, which ranks 5 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 13.69% above the national middle.
- Against other work in Minnesota, this sits in the middle: 249 of 490 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- No great distortion either way. Minnesota costs about what the country costs, so from $63,180, take-home of $50,172 is worth roughly $50,979 in national money. The average comes to $69,660, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Minnesota ranks 5 of 50 states publishing a median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, at $63,180 — about 13.69% 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.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 249 of 490 occupations in Minnesota 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.
- Price parity in Minnesota is near the national base, so for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, whose median is $63,180, the adjusted figure of $50,979 differs little from $50,172 retained after tax. The state's position for this occupation is therefore set by wage and tax rather than by living costs. At $69,660 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $45,750 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $63,180 |
| Top tenth earn over | $93,290 |
| This salary | $63,180 |
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 Minnesota | $50,172 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,945 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,505 |
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 | $59,729 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,239 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $63,180 as a midpoint for Minnesota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $45,750 and the ninetieth is $93,290 — 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 Minnesota's $50,172, worked from $63,180. 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 249 of 490.
- Two cautions on $50,979, the adjusted value of that $63,180 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. 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 249 of 490 locally.
- The Minnesota median of $63,180 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $45,750 to $93,290. 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 Minnesota take-home of $50,172, on $63,180 for work ranking 249 of 490 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 249 of 490 in the state.
- This $50,979 adjusted figure, worked from $63,180, 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 249 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 249 of 490 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 $69,660 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $45,750, the highest tenth $93,290, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $50,979 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Minnesota's own levy, $50,172 remains.
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 Minnesota is $69,660. 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 ($45,750) and the ninetieth ($93,290) 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?
Minnesota'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 $50,979 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 $50,172 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.