Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in California
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$44,501
after federal, FICA and California tax
Tax takes
$9,989
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$39,528
California costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in California — 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
$54,490
Kept after tax
$44,501
Worth in national money
$39,528
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. California pays this job a middle wage of $54,490, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 18.64% above the national middle.
- Against other work in California, this sits in the middle: 341 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- California is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $54,490 the take-home is $44,501; in national-average money that behaves like $39,528. The average comes to $56,350, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- California's median for medical secretaries and administrative assistants is $54,490, about 18.64% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Medical secretaries and administrative assistants ranks 341 of 492 occupations in California 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.
- Take-home for medical secretaries and administrative assistants in California, on $54,490, is $44,501; deflated by the state's price level, $39,528. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $56,350 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $54,490 |
| Top tenth earn over | $76,020 |
| This salary | $54,490 |
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 California | $44,501 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $45,963 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,771 |
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 | $52,671 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$9,398 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 113 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in California earn less than $54,490. The published range is $40,650 up to $76,020, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $44,501 take-home in California comes from $54,490. 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 341 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of California, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $39,528, the adjusted value of that $54,490 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 341 of 492 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for medical secretaries and administrative assistants in California the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $40,650 to $76,020. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $44,501, from $54,490, assumes a single California 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 341 of 492 locally, and the state ranks 2 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for California, so $39,528 — the adjusted value of that $54,490 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 341 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $56,350, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $40,650 at the tenth percentile, $76,020 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $39,528 of national purchasing power.
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 California adds its own income tax on top — which is why $44,501 of this wage survives to your account.
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 California is $56,350. 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 ($40,650 to $76,020) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to California rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
California's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $39,528 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $44,501 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and California 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.