Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in District of Columbia
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$47,870
after federal, FICA and District of Columbia tax
Tax takes
$12,040
20.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$43,202
District of Columbia costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in District of Columbia — 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
$59,910
Kept after tax
$47,870
Worth in national money
$43,202
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. District of Columbia pays this job a middle wage of $59,910, ranking 1 of 51 states and sitting about 26.02% above the national middle.
- Against other work in District of Columbia, this sits in the middle: 284 of 390 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $59,910, tax leaves $47,870 — and because District of Columbia is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $43,202 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $61,270, since top earners drag the number up.
- District of Columbia's median for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive is $59,910, about 26.02% above the national figure and 1 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.
- Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive ranks 284 of 390 occupations in District of Columbia 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.
- After tax, $47,870 remains from the District of Columbia median of $59,910 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $43,202 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $61,270 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $39,480 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $59,910 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,290 |
| This salary | $59,910 |
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 District of Columbia | $47,870 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $50,318 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$8,578 |
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 | $56,864 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,374 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 111 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in District of Columbia earn less than $59,910. The published range is $39,480 up to $84,290, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $47,870 take-home in District of Columbia comes from $59,910. 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 284 of 390.
- Two cautions on $43,202, the adjusted value of that $59,910 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of District of Columbia. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 284 of 390 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive in District of Columbia the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $39,480 to $84,290. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $47,870, from $59,910, assumes a single District of Columbia 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 284 of 390 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 51 for it.
- This $43,202 adjusted figure, worked from $59,910, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 284 of 390 in the state. The occupation ranks 284 of 390 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $39,480, the highest tenth $84,290, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
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 $43,202 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; District of Columbia then takes its own share, leaving $47,870.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($39,480) and the ninetieth ($84,290) 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.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
District of Columbia's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $43,202 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 $47,870 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and District of Columbia 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.