Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,686
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$6,014
14.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$40,508
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$41,700
Kept after tax
$35,686
Worth in national money
$40,508
State rank
44
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. South Dakota pays this job a middle wage of $41,700, 44 of 51 states and about 12.28% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within South Dakota this is lower-paid work. Of 457 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 364. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $41,700 you keep $35,686 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $40,508 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $42,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- South Dakota's $41,700 median for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive places it 44 of 51 states, about 12.28% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation South Dakota reports, secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive ranks 364 of 457, 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.
- Retained pay in South Dakota is $35,686 after the full tax stack, from $41,700. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $40,508 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $42,030 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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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 | $31,200 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $41,700 |
| Top tenth earn over | $51,480 |
| This salary | $41,700 |
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 Dakota | $35,686 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $35,686 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,785 |
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 | $41,700 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,578 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
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 South Dakota earn under $41,700 and half over. The published range runs $31,200 at the tenth percentile to $51,480 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $35,686 take-home in South Dakota comes from $41,700. 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 364 of 457.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $40,508 uses one figure for the whole of South Dakota. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 457 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 364.
- Figures are distribution medians for secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive in South Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,200 to $51,480; 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 $35,686, from $41,700, assumes a single South Dakota 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 364 of 457 locally, and the state ranks 44 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $40,508, worked from $41,700, 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 South Dakota address, on work sitting at 364 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $31,200 at the tenth percentile, $51,480 at the ninetieth.
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 $40,508.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $35,686 of this wage reaches your account, because South Dakota takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($31,200 to $51,480) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $40,508 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $35,686 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.