What executive assistants are paid in 2026, and how few postings say so
Fewer than half of executive assistant postings in the US state pay. Of 6,838 postings collected in 2026 to August 31, 3,213 stated a figure, and their coverage-adjusted median is $79,934, up 6.6% from the same window in 2025. This page gives the quartiles, the disclosure rate and the method.
$79,934
National Median
Just under half of executive assistant postings in the US this year state pay. Of the 6,838 postings collected between January 1 and August 31, 2026, 3,213 stated a figure, a 47.0 percent disclosure rate. Their median, corrected for which states disclose, is $79,934 a year. The unadjusted median of the same postings is $80,000.
This is base pay as posted, with bonuses and equity excluded. Posted pay is up 6.6 percent from the same window in 2025, on a sample of 3,213 disclosing postings this year against 10,485 last year.
The figures: what executive assistant postings state
Two rows, because the second one is the one to quote. As posted is what the 3,213 disclosing postings say. Coverage-adjusted re-weights them so each state carries its share of all 6,838 collected postings rather than its share of the ones that disclosed. That correction moves the median down 0.1 percent and pulls the 75th percentile down $4,580, to $95,281.
| Measure | As posted | Coverage-adjusted |
|---|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $63,000 | $62,400 |
| Median | $80,000 | $79,934 |
| 75th percentile | $99,861 | $95,281 |
Base pay, annualized, 3,213 US postings that stated pay, collected January 1 to August 31, 2026.
47.0% of executive assistant postings state pay
3,213 of the 6,838 collected postings carried a usable annual figure. 3,619 gave no pay information at all, and 6 gave something unusable: 4 were not in US dollars and 2 fell outside the collection window.
In the thirteen states with pay-transparency laws in force, 53.9 percent of postings state pay against 33.8 percent everywhere else, and the median role pays about 10.1 percent more in those states. Re-weighting by state is what produces the coverage-adjusted column above; here it moves the median down 0.1 percent and the 75th percentile down $4,580.
The minority of postings that give no number still say something. What a DOE listing actually means covers the phrasings employers use instead of a figure.
Posted pay is up 6.6% from a year ago
The 2025 comparison uses the same titles, the same country filter and the same calendar window, January 1 to early September, so a move like this is a measurement rather than a gap in the data. The 2025 median was $75,036 across 10,485 disclosing postings. The 2026 median is $80,000 across 3,213. That places the role in the balanced band on PayScope's market label.
Posting volume differs a lot between the two years, and that is a fact about collection, not about hiring: this pipeline's monthly volume swings by a factor of twenty, so this page makes no claim about how many executive assistant jobs exist. The medians are comparable, the counts are not.
Pay by level, on the postings that state one
The ladder below is built on the 382 postings that state a level, counting the 10 Lead postings that fall under our reporting floor. The other 2,831 usable postings state none, and their median of $80,000 is exactly the role median, so the headline figure on this page is mostly them. Read the ladder as a description of postings that name a rung, not as a description of the market.
| Level | Postings | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 109 | $53,581 | $66,400 | $80,000 | 2 to 3 years |
| Mid | 149 | $63,440 | $70,551 | $81,120 | 3 to 6 years |
| Senior | 498 | $82,500 | $100,000 | $120,000 | 5 to 8 years |
A fourth rung, Lead, sits on 10 postings, under the 30-posting floor PayScope uses for a publishable median, so it is not shown.
How these figures were produced
The source is PayScope's own collection of US job postings, deduplicated by posting id and filtered to the United States, covering January 1 to August 31, 2026. 6,838 postings matched the role and 3,213 stated a usable annual pay figure. Every figure on this page is base pay as the employer wrote it, with bonuses, overtime and equity all excluded.
Five posted titles map to this role:
- executive assistant
- executive administrative assistant
- executive assistant to the ceo
- executive assistant to chief executive officer
- executive assistant to ceo
The figures are regenerated monthly on this method, and August 31 is the cut-off for every number here. September postings exist in the corpus but that month's collection is too thin to sit beside the rest of the year.
Other roles are on the salary guide index.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median salary for an executive assistant in the US?
$79,934 a year, coverage-adjusted, from 3,213 US job postings that stated pay and were collected between January 1 and August 31, 2026. The unadjusted median of the same postings is $80,000. Half of them sit between $62,400 and $95,281 on a coverage-adjusted basis.
How many executive assistant job postings state pay?
47.0 percent. Of 6,838 US postings collected in 2026 through August 31, 3,213 carried a usable pay figure, 3,619 carried none, and 6 quoted something that could not be used. Disclosure is higher in the thirteen states with pay-transparency laws in force, at 53.9 percent against 33.8 percent everywhere else.
Has executive assistant pay gone up in 2026?
Yes. The median posted base is $80,000, against $75,036 for the same window of 2025, a 6.6 percent rise measured on the same titles and the same calendar window. That places the role in the balanced band on PayScope's market label.
Are these executive assistant figures base pay or total compensation?
Base pay as the employer posted it, annualized. Bonuses, overtime and equity are excluded.
Why does the ladder skip a Lead figure?
10 postings state a Lead level, under the 30-posting floor PayScope uses for a publishable median, so no Lead figure is shown. The three published rungs, Entry through Senior, are built on 32, 64 and 276 postings respectively.