Key Takeaways
- BLS reported average private-industry employer compensation of $46.60 per hour in March 2026, including $32.60 in wages and salaries and $14.01 in benefits.
- BLS reported a $79,140 national mean annual wage and a $76,590 median annual wage for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in 2025.
- A simple benefits-adjusted illustration converts the $79,140 mean wage to about $113,219, but it is not an actual employer cost for every EA role.
- BLS counted 489,300 executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in 2025, with essentially unchanged projected employment through 2035.
- No authoritative public dataset measures a universal enterprise savings percentage from virtual-assistant use, so buyers should model their own replacement, retained, and transition costs.
Enterprise admin cost reduction via virtual assistants: begin with a cost model
The public data can establish a credible administrative labor baseline. It cannot establish that every enterprise will save the same percentage by using virtual assistants. A useful model includes the current labor cost, the service cost, the work that stays internal, the transition effort, and the cost of quality or delay.
That distinction matters. Replacing a salary figure with a vendor price is not a complete comparison. An enterprise may retain an internal owner, add security controls, purchase software seats, or shift a task only partly. The right decision is about the total operating model, not a headline discount.
The current U.S. compensation baseline
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release reported the following March 2026 private-industry averages. These are averages across private-industry workers, not figures specific to executive assistants or enterprise administrative teams.
| Compensation component | Average per hour | Share of total compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Wages and salaries | $32.60 | 69.9% |
| Benefits | $14.01 | 30.1% |
| Total employer compensation | $46.60 | 100.0% |
At 2,080 paid work hours, that all-worker benchmark equates to about $96,928 per year. It is a broad labor-cost reference point. It does not include every cost an enterprise might attribute to an administrative role, such as recruiting, management time, office space, equipment, training, or unused capacity.
Executive-assistant pay context
The BLS May 2025 occupational wage table reports a national mean annual wage of $79,140 for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a 2025 median annual wage of $76,590 and 489,300 workers in the occupation.
| Measure | Reported result | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| National mean annual wage | $79,140 | Wage only. It is not total employer cost. |
| National median annual wage | $76,590 | Median and mean answer different questions. Neither is an enterprise rate card. |
| 2025 employment | 489,300 | Occupation count, not the number of employees supporting enterprises. |
| 2025 to 2035 projection | Essentially unchanged | A forecast of occupation employment, not a forecast of VA demand. |
The BLS figures are U.S. labor-market benchmarks. An actual enterprise role can be above or below them because of location, seniority, schedule coverage, industry, collective-bargaining terms, and the scope of responsibility.
A transparent illustration, not a savings claim
The benefits share in the BLS private-industry average can make a salary-only comparison misleading. For an illustration only, apply the 69.9% wage share to the $79,140 national mean wage:
illustrative compensation baseline = $79,140 ÷ 0.699 = about $113,219
This calculation uses a broad private-industry benefit ratio with an occupation-specific mean wage. It is not a measured all-in cost for executive assistants. Benefits vary by company and role, so use your payroll and benefit data whenever available.
The table makes the assumption visible.
| Model input | Value | Source or method |
|---|---|---|
| Executive-assistant mean annual wage | $79,140 | BLS May 2025 occupational wage table |
| Wage share of private-industry compensation | 69.9% | BLS March 2026 ECEC release |
| Illustrative benefits-adjusted baseline | about $113,219 | $79,140 divided by 0.699 |
| Enterprise service cost | Enter your contracted annual cost | Contract, statement of work, and software allocation |
| Retained internal cost | Enter remaining review, management, and coverage cost | Time study and payroll data |
The decision formula for enterprise buyers
Use a like-for-like annual comparison. The formula below can be used for one role, a team, or a defined workload.
net annual change = current fully loaded cost - service cost - retained internal cost - transition cost - quality and delay cost
Positive results indicate a modeled reduction. Negative results indicate a modeled increase. The last two terms are often omitted even though they decide whether a low contract rate creates a real operating benefit.
| Cost category | Questions to answer before declaring savings |
|---|---|
| Current fully loaded cost | Does it include salary, benefits, payroll taxes, recruiting, equipment, facilities, and management time? |
| Service cost | Does it include coverage hours, account management, replacement, overtime, software, and country-specific charges? |
| Retained internal cost | Who approves sensitive work, manages exceptions, and provides executive context? |
| Transition cost | How many internal hours are needed for process mapping, training, access setup, and acceptance testing? |
| Quality and delay cost | What is the impact of an incorrect booking, missed customer response, data error, or late escalation? |
No public source on this page proves a provider-specific savings rate. A vendor estimate can be a useful proposal input, but it should be reconciled to this full model and tested against actual work volume.
Allocate work before calculating savings
Savings depend on what moves and what remains. O*NET's executive-assistant occupation profile includes scheduling, travel arrangements, reports, correspondence, research, office coordination, and records. Those activities differ in the access, stakeholder context, and response time they require.
| Work type | Cost-model treatment |
|---|---|
| Repeatable scheduling, research, and document preparation | Estimate service capacity and sample quality before scaling. |
| Executive correspondence and stakeholder exceptions | Include retained internal review time. |
| Financial, legal, personnel, or customer records | Include access controls, approval steps, and audit requirements. |
| Time-sensitive support | Price the required response window and coverage, not only a nominal number of hours. |
For a task-allocation framework, see our EA and VA workload distribution statistics. For time-zone coverage assumptions, see our remote work time zone overlap statistics.
Security, privacy, and continuity costs are real costs
Administrative work may involve calendars, documents, travel, personnel information, and customer communications. The NIST SP 800-53 access-control family is a useful reference for designing role-based and least-privilege access. It does not tell an enterprise which staffing model to use.
Include the cost of identity management, access reviews, secure devices, approved communication channels, and incident procedures in the decision. A model that excludes required controls does not show savings. It shows an incomplete scope.
A pilot that produces decision-quality evidence
A time-limited pilot can replace speculation with operating data. Select a repeatable task set, define a service window, measure a baseline, and keep the initial access scope narrow.
Track these measures before and during the pilot:
- Volume completed and on-time completion rate
- First-pass acceptance rate and rework hours
- Internal review minutes per completed task
- Escalation count and reason
- Security or access exceptions
- Cost per accepted completed unit
Compare the same task category before and after the pilot. Do not use a one-off executive request or a peak-week crisis as the sole performance benchmark.
Source notes and caveats
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026 reports broad private-industry compensation averages. It is not an executive-assistant cost survey.
- BLS national occupational wage table, May 2025 reports wage data, not fully loaded enterprise employment cost.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook supplies occupation employment, median wage, and outlook data. It does not measure VA contracts or enterprise savings.
- O*NET's occupation profile describes the work associated with the executive-assistant occupation. It does not determine which tasks a particular organization can move safely.
- NIST SP 800-53 provides a control reference. It is not a productivity study or financial benchmark.
Frequently asked questions
How much can an enterprise save with a virtual assistant?
There is no authoritative universal percentage. Calculate the current fully loaded cost, then subtract the service cost, retained internal work, transition cost, and quality or delay cost. Validate the model with a defined pilot before making a broad savings commitment.
Does the BLS executive-assistant wage equal the cost of an employee?
No. BLS wage data is not a complete employer-cost figure. Employer costs also include benefits and may include payroll taxes, equipment, recruiting, management, facilities, and other role-specific expenses.
What should remain internal when administrative work is outsourced?
Keep accountability, sensitive decisions, and exception ownership with a named internal owner. Define which repeatable tasks can be prepared externally, what access is needed, and when an escalation must receive a live response.
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