Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in South Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$37,581
after federal, FICA and South Carolina tax
Tax takes
$7,299
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,333
South Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Carolina — 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
$44,880
Kept after tax
$37,581
Worth in national money
$40,333
State rank
37
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is on the low side in South Carolina. The middle earner gets $44,880. That is 37 of 51 states, and about 5.6% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against other work in South Carolina, this sits in the middle: 342 of 492 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $44,880 you keep $37,581 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $40,333 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $45,010, since top earners drag the number up.
- For secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, South Carolina sits in the lower band at $44,880, ranking 37 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 5.6%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive ranks 342 of 492 occupations in South Carolina 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.
- Retained pay in South Carolina is $37,581 after the full tax stack, from $44,880. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $40,333 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $45,010 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 | $29,100 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,880 |
| Top tenth earn over | $61,660 |
| This salary | $44,880 |
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 South Carolina | $37,581 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $38,241 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$980 |
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 | $44,059 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,185 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 93 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $44,880 as a midpoint for South Carolina, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,100 and the ninetieth is $61,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind South Carolina's $37,581, worked from $44,880. 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 342 of 492.
- Two cautions on $40,333, the adjusted value of that $44,880 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Carolina. 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 342 of 492 locally.
- The South Carolina median of $44,880 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,100 to $61,660. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The South Carolina take-home of $37,581, on $44,880 for work ranking 342 of 492 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 342 of 492 in the state.
- This $40,333 adjusted figure, worked from $44,880, 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 342 of 492 in the state. The occupation ranks 342 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $29,100 and the top tenth $61,660 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $40,333.
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 South Carolina's own levy, $37,581 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($29,100) and the ninetieth ($61,660) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Carolina'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 $40,333 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 $37,581 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and South Carolina 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.