Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$56,340
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$15,890
22.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,348
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$72,230
Kept after tax
$56,340
Worth in national money
$52,348
State rank
2
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- New York is one of the better-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $72,230, which ranks 2 of 50 states with published figures. That is about 29.98% above the national middle.
- Against other work in New York, this sits in the middle: 229 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $72,230, tax leaves $56,340 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $52,348 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $74,870, since top earners drag the number up.
- New York ranks 2 of 50 states publishing a median for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, at $72,230 — about 29.98% 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 229 of 493 occupations in New York 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, $56,340 remains from the New York median of $72,230 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $52,348 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $74,870 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $42,340 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $72,230 |
| Top tenth earn over | $107,780 |
| This salary | $72,230 |
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 New York | $56,340 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $59,644 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,029 |
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 | $67,534 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,633 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $72,230 as a midpoint for New York, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $42,340 and the ninetieth is $107,780 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In New York the take-home figure of $56,340, from $72,230, 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 229 of 493 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $52,348, the adjusted value of that $72,230 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New York. 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 229 of 493 locally.
- The New York median of $72,230 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $42,340 to $107,780. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for New York is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $56,340 from $72,230. 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 229 of 493 locally.
- This $52,348 adjusted figure, worked from $72,230, 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 229 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 229 of 493 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 $74,870, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $42,340, the highest tenth $107,780, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $52,348 of national purchasing power.
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 New York adds its own income tax on top — which is why $56,340 of this wage survives to your account.
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 New York is $74,870. 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 ($42,340) and the ninetieth ($107,780) 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?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $52,348 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 $56,340 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.