Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,346
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$9,334
19.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,845
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$48,680
Kept after tax
$39,346
Worth in national money
$37,845
State rank
15
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Maryland pays this job a middle wage of $48,680, ranking 15 of 51 states and sitting about 2.4% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 349 among 489 occupations Maryland publishes pay for.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $48,680, tax leaves $39,346 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $37,845 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $50,790, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maryland's median for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive is $48,680, about 2.4% above the national figure and 15 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.
- Position 349 of 489 in Maryland places secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive 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 tax, $39,346 remains from the Maryland median of $48,680 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $37,845 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $50,790 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 | $35,360 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $48,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $67,070 |
| This salary | $48,680 |
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 Maryland | $39,346 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $41,294 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,650 |
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 | $46,255 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,623 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Maryland earn less than $48,680. The published range is $35,360 up to $67,070, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $39,346 take-home in Maryland comes from $48,680. 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 349 of 489.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $37,845 uses one figure for the whole of Maryland. 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 349.
- Reported values are medians; for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive in Maryland the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,360 to $67,070. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $39,346, from $48,680, assumes a single Maryland 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 349 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 15 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $37,845, worked from $48,680, 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 Maryland address, on work sitting at 349 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $50,790, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $35,360 at the bottom tenth to $67,070 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Maryland run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $37,845 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $39,346 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 Maryland is $50,790. 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 ($35,360 to $67,070) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maryland rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,845 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 $39,346 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.