Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$41,925
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$9,505
18.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,000
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — 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
$51,430
Kept after tax
$41,925
Worth in national money
$43,000
State rank
26
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays this job around $51,430 at the midpoint, 26 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 300 among 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $51,430, tax leaves $41,925, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $43,000 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $53,390, since top earners drag the number up.
- For legal secretaries and administrative assistants the Pennsylvania median is $51,430, ranking 26 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.
- Position 300 of 492 in Pennsylvania 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for legal secretaries and administrative assistants — median $51,430 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $41,925 retained, $43,000 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $53,390 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $51,430 |
| Top tenth earn over | $77,420 |
| This salary | $51,430 |
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 Pennsylvania | $41,925 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $43,504 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,769 |
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 | $49,465 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,139 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $51,430 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $35,900 and the ninetieth is $77,420 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $41,925 take-home in Pennsylvania comes from $51,430. 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 300 of 492.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $43,000 uses one figure for the whole of Pennsylvania. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 492 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 300.
- The Pennsylvania median of $51,430 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $35,900 to $77,420. 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 $41,925, from $51,430, assumes a single Pennsylvania 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 300 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 26 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $43,000, worked from $51,430, 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 Pennsylvania address, on work sitting at 300 of 492 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 $53,390 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?
The label is broader than the work. From $35,900 at the bottom tenth to $77,420 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Pennsylvania sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $43,000 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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 Pennsylvania adds its own income tax on top — which is why $41,925 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Pennsylvania is $53,390. 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 ($35,900) and the ninetieth ($77,420) 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?
Pennsylvania'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 $43,000 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 $41,925 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.