Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$30,999
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$6,001
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,834
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — 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
$37,000
Kept after tax
$30,999
Worth in national money
$35,834
State rank
48
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays this job a middle wage of $37,000, 48 of 51 states and about 19.44% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Arkansas this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 384. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,000 you keep $30,999 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $35,834 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $39,610, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arkansas's $37,000 median for medical secretaries and administrative assistants places it 48 of 51 states, about 19.44% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Arkansas reports, medical secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 384 of 489, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Arkansas is $30,999 after the full tax stack, from $37,000. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $35,834 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $39,610 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,690 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,960 |
| This salary | $37,000 |
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 Arkansas | $30,999 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $31,910 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,997 |
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 | $35,867 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,624 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arkansas earn less than $37,000. The published range is $31,690 up to $47,960, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Arkansas's $30,999, worked from $37,000. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 384 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $35,834 uses one figure for the whole of Arkansas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 489 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 384.
- Reported values are medians; for medical secretaries and administrative assistants in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,690 to $47,960. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Arkansas take-home of $30,999, on $37,000 for work ranking 384 of 489 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 384 of 489 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $35,834, worked from $37,000, 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 Arkansas address, on work sitting at 384 of 489 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 $39,610 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 — $31,690 at the tenth percentile, $47,960 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Arkansas is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $35,834 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arkansas's own levy, $30,999 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Arkansas is $39,610. 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 ($31,690 to $47,960) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas'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 $35,834 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 $30,999 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.