Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in New York
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$39,952
after federal, FICA and New York tax
Tax takes
$9,648
19.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$37,121
New York costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New York — 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
$49,600
Kept after tax
$39,952
Worth in national money
$37,121
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. New York's middle earner gets $49,600, putting the state 12 of 51 — about 4.33% ahead of the national figure.
- Within New York this is lower-paid work. Of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 370. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $49,600, tax leaves $39,952 — and because New York is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $37,121 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $51,490, since top earners drag the number up.
- For secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, New York sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $49,600, ranking 12 of 51 and running about 4.33% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Against every occupation New York reports, secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive ranks 370 of 493, 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.
- After tax, $39,952 remains from the New York median of $49,600 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $37,121 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $51,490 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 | $37,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $49,600 |
| Top tenth earn over | $64,840 |
| This salary | $49,600 |
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 New York | $39,952 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $42,034 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$6,134 |
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 | $47,010 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$7,419 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive in New York earn under $49,600 and half over. The published range runs $37,330 at the tenth percentile to $64,840 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $39,952 take-home in New York comes from $49,600. 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 370 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of New York, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $37,121, the adjusted value of that $49,600 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 370 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive in New York, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $37,330 to $64,840; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $39,952, from $49,600, assumes a single New York 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 370 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for New York, so $37,121 — the adjusted value of that $49,600 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 370 of 493 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 $51,490, 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 $37,330 at the bottom tenth to $64,840 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 New York run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $37,121 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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; New York then takes its own share, leaving $39,952.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
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 New York is $51,490. 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 ($37,330 to $64,840) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New York rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New York's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $37,121 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 $39,952 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New York 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.