Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Vermont

A person arriving at a home office with a bag beside a laptop and navy coffee cup.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$40,236

after federal, FICA and Vermont tax

Tax takes

$8,854

18.0% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$41,637

Vermont costs less than average

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

$49,090

Kept after tax

$40,236

Worth in national money

$41,637

State rank

29

of 50 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Neither high nor low. Vermont is 29 of 50 states for this job, with a middle wage of $49,090. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 328 among 453 occupations Vermont publishes pay for.
  • Here is where Vermont does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $49,090 you keep $40,236, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $41,637 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $52,210, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Vermont ranks 29 of 50 for legal secretaries and administrative assistants at $49,090. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
  • Position 328 of 453 in Vermont 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.
  • After federal, FICA and Vermont income tax, retained pay for legal secretaries and administrative assistants on $49,090 is $40,236. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $41,637 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $52,210 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

Compare this career across states

Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.

Pay band: Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$46,580
Half earn under$49,090
Top tenth earn over$62,920
This salary$49,090

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

Compare with
+$1,388take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Vermont$40,236
Take-home in Texas$41,624
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$1,197

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

Moving to
$0now · $49,090$47,642
$47,642in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$47,362
You could take a cut of−$1,448
Prices in Texas97 vs 97

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Half the people doing this work in Vermont earn less than $49,090. The published range is $46,580 up to $62,920, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
  • That $40,236 take-home in Vermont comes from $49,090. 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 328 of 453.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Vermont, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $41,637, the adjusted value of that $49,090 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 328 of 453 in the state.
  • Reported values are medians; for legal secretaries and administrative assistants in Vermont the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,580 to $62,920. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
  • Retained pay of $40,236, from $49,090, assumes a single Vermont 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 328 of 453 locally, and the state ranks 29 of 50 for it.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Vermont, so $41,637 — the adjusted value of that $49,090 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 328 of 453 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 $52,210 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $46,580 at the tenth percentile, $62,920 at the ninetieth.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

More than the figure suggests. Prices in Vermont sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $41,637 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 Vermont adds its own income tax on top — which is why $40,236 of this wage survives to your account.

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 Vermont is $52,210. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($46,580 to $62,920) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Vermont rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Vermont'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 $41,637 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 $40,236 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Vermont 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.