Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in North Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,199
after federal, FICA and North Dakota tax
Tax takes
$8,341
15.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$51,031
North Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Dakota — 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
$53,540
Kept after tax
$45,199
Worth in national money
$51,031
State rank
21
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. North Dakota pays this job around $53,540 at the midpoint, 21 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in North Dakota, this sits in the middle: 288 of 460 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- North Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $53,540 the take-home is $45,199; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $51,031 would nationally. The average comes to $53,670, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For legal secretaries and administrative assistants the North Dakota median is $53,540, ranking 21 of 50 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 288 of 460 occupations in North Dakota 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.
- Post-tax income for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in North Dakota, on $53,540, is $45,199 — equivalent to $51,031 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $53,670 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 | $38,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $53,540 |
| Top tenth earn over | $68,510 |
| This salary | $53,540 |
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 North Dakota | $45,199 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,199 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,518 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $53,540 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,464 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $53,540 as a midpoint for North Dakota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $38,490 and the ninetieth is $68,510 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $45,199 take-home in North Dakota comes from $53,540. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 288 of 460.
- Two cautions on $51,031, the adjusted value of that $53,540 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of North Dakota. 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 288 of 460 locally.
- The North Dakota median of $53,540 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $38,490 to $68,510. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $45,199, from $53,540, assumes a single North Dakota filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 288 of 460 locally, and the state ranks 21 of 50 for it.
- This $51,031 adjusted figure, worked from $53,540, 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 288 of 460 in the state. The occupation ranks 288 of 460 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $38,490 at the tenth percentile, $68,510 at the ninetieth.
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 $51,031.
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; North Dakota then takes its own share, leaving $45,199.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($38,490 to $68,510) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Dakota'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 $51,031 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 $45,199 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Dakota 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.