Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,093
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$6,847
14.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,229
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$45,940
Kept after tax
$39,093
Worth in national money
$40,229
State rank
41
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Texas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $45,940, ranking 41 of 50 states — about 17.33% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Texas, this sits in the middle: 332 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $45,940, tax leaves $39,093, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $40,229 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $54,180, since top earners drag the number up.
- Texas ranks 41 of 50 for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, with a median of $45,940 — about 17.33% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Legal secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 332 of 493 occupations in Texas 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.
- Because Texas sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for legal secretaries and administrative assistants — median $45,940 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $39,093 retained, $40,229 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $54,180 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 | $39,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $45,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $82,680 |
| This salary | $45,940 |
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 Texas | $39,093 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $39,093 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,441 |
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 | $45,940 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,143 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 Texas earn under $45,940 and half over. The published range runs $39,480 at the tenth percentile to $82,680 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Texas the take-home figure of $39,093, from $45,940, 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 332 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Texas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $40,229, the adjusted value of that $45,940 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 332 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $39,480 to $82,680; 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.
- Take-home for Texas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $39,093 from $45,940. 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 332 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Texas, so $40,229 — the adjusted value of that $45,940 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 332 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $54,180, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,480, the highest tenth $82,680, 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 $40,229.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $39,093 survives, because Texas levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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.
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 Texas is $54,180. 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 ($39,480) and the ninetieth ($82,680) 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?
Texas'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 $40,229 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $39,093 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.