Executive Administrative Support ROI Statistics for 2026

Executive administrative support ROI statistics for 2026

Executive administrative support has a measurable cost, but its return depends on what the executive stops doing and what happens with the recovered time. A claim such as "an assistant delivers 10x ROI" is not a benchmark unless it identifies the assistant cost, the executive's economic value per hour, the hours actually redirected, and the outcome attributed to those hours.

Current public data allows a more careful answer. The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage release puts the median annual wage for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at $76,590. The BLS median for chief executives is $213,990. Meanwhile, Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index found that 52% of surveyed leaders said their work felt chaotic and fragmented. Those figures establish the cost and workload problem, but they do not prove that every assistant produces the same return.

This review of executive administrative support ROI statistics for 2026 uses reported data where it exists and labels calculations as scenarios. Companies can replace the assumptions with their own payroll and time-tracking data before making a hiring decision.

Executive administrative support statistics at a glance

Sources: BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025, BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, BLS Top Executives, Gallup's Inc. 500 CEO study, and Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index special report.

What executive administrative support costs in 2026

The BLS May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release, published May 15, 2026, counted 459,910 executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in the United States. Their mean wage was $38.05 per hour, or $79,140 annually. The median was $36.82 per hour, equivalent to $76,590 annually. These are wage estimates for employees in nonfarm establishments. They are not contractor rates or the price of a managed service.

Salary also understates an employer's cost. In June 2026, wages and salaries accounted for 70.0% of total compensation across private industry, while benefits accounted for 30.0%, according to the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release. Applying that economy-wide split to the assistant median gives this planning estimate:

The $109,414 figure is not a BLS occupation-specific compensation estimate. It applies the private industry average benefit share to the national median wage. A company's health plan, payroll taxes, paid leave, retirement contribution, recruiting cost, equipment, and location can move the actual total in either direction.

The 2025 BLS Occupational Requirements Survey found that prior work experience was required for 87.2% of executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants. More than basic people skills were required for 95.9%. Routine telework was allowed for 39.5% of workers in the occupation. These percentages describe job requirements and conditions, not performance outcomes.

A transparent 2026 ROI model

There are two related measures that people often call ROI:

1. Return multiple = annual value created / annual support cost
2. ROI percentage = (annual value created - annual support cost) / annual support cost x 100

For a time-value model, annual value created equals weekly executive hours redirected multiplied by 52 weeks and the value assigned to an executive hour.

The latest BLS median wage for chief executives is $213,990. Dividing it by 2,080 hours gives $102.88 per hour. That is a wage proxy, not a claim about the revenue produced by a CEO in an hour. Using the $109,414 loaded support estimate above produces the following scenarios.

At the two national medians, time substitution alone breaks even at about 20.5 redirected hours per week. This is an intentionally strict test. It treats an hour of recovered executive capacity as worth only the executive's wage and assigns no value to work completed directly by the assistant.

The model changes for executives above the median. BLS reports that the highest-paid 10% of chief executives earned more than $507,730 in May 2025. At the threshold value of $244.10 per hour, redirecting 10 hours per week represents about $126,932 in annual executive time. Against the same $109,414 support cost, that is a 1.16x return multiple and approximately 16.0% ROI. Because $507,730 is a percentile threshold, not the average pay of the top tenth, it should not be presented as a typical CEO salary.

Companies considering executive assistant services can make this calculation more useful by substituting actual total compensation for both roles. They should also use observed redirected hours rather than a vendor estimate.

Why workload data matters to the ROI case

The strongest case for support starts with a documented capacity problem. It does not start with a generic time-saving promise.

Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria's Harvard Business Review research followed 27 CEOs for 13 weeks each, logging nearly 60,000 hours in total. This is one of the most detailed executive time-use studies available, but its population is small and consists of CEOs of large companies. The results should not be generalized to every founder or manager.

Microsoft's June 2025 special report gives a broader view of digital work. Its survey covered 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed knowledge workers in 31 markets. Microsoft reported that 48% of employees and 52% of leaders felt their work was chaotic and fragmented. The report also found an average of 117 emails and 153 Teams messages per worker each weekday.

Microsoft's interruption figure needs a denominator attached. The company reported a ping every two minutes during an eight-hour workday for the top 20% of Microsoft 365 users by ping volume received. It combined meeting invites, emails, and chats in a rolling 28-day measure. It is not an average for all workers, and it does not show how many interruptions an assistant can prevent.

These studies point to places where an assistant may create value: inbox triage, schedule control, meeting preparation, follow-up, research, and information routing. The BLS occupation definition includes preparing statistical reports, handling information requests, correspondence, conference calls, and meeting schedules. To prove ROI, an employer still needs before-and-after measures for those tasks.

For a closer look at the operating side of the role, see the executive assistant productivity guide.

Delegation is associated with growth, but it is not an EA experiment

Gallup's delegation research is often used as proof of executive assistant ROI. The original study is narrower than that claim.

In 2014, Gallup studied the entrepreneurial talent profiles of 143 CEOs on the Inc. 500 list. CEOs with high Delegator talent reported 2013 revenue averaging $8 million, compared with $6 million for CEOs with low or limited Delegator talent. That is a 33% difference. Their companies also created an average of 21 jobs over three years, compared with 17 jobs for the lower-delegation group.

The study shows an association in a selected group of fast-growing U.S. private companies. It did not randomly assign administrative support, and it did not isolate the contribution of an executive assistant. Delegation talent may travel with other management strengths. The 33% figure therefore belongs in the strategic case for delegation, not in a guaranteed assistant ROI calculation.

How to measure executive administrative support ROI

A 30-day baseline and a 60- to 90-day follow-up will produce better evidence than a broad industry multiple. Track a small set of measures that can be counted consistently:

• executive hours spent on scheduling, inbox processing, travel, meeting preparation, and follow-up;
• the same hours after support begins, excluding time merely shifted to nights or weekends;
• assistant wages, benefits, service fees, software, recruiting, and onboarding time;
• work the assistant completes directly, with an agreed internal value or avoided vendor cost;
• revenue or cost outcomes only when a documented causal link exists.

Use the median chief executive wage only as a fallback. For an internal decision, the executive's actual total compensation or a finance-approved contribution measure is more relevant. Avoid using a client billing rate unless every recovered hour can realistically be sold at that rate.

The calculation should also include utilization. If an assistant supports two executives, allocate the cost and time recovered to each. If coverage is part time, use the contracted annual cost and observed weekly hours. If the role absorbs project coordination or reporting work that would otherwise require another hire, record that avoided cost separately from executive time.

What the 2026 statistics support

The evidence does not support one universal ROI multiple. It supports four narrower conclusions:

• Executive administrative support is a skilled occupation with a $76,590 U.S. median wage and substantial experience requirements.
• Benefits materially change the cost comparison. They reached 30.0% of private industry compensation in the latest June 2026 BLS release.
• Executive attention is under pressure. In Microsoft's global sample, 52% of leaders described work as chaotic and fragmented.
• Delegation correlates with stronger business results in Gallup's Inc. 500 sample, but that study does not prove an assistant caused the difference.

The practical conclusion from these executive administrative support ROI statistics for 2026 is straightforward: calculate the return from the work actually transferred. At national median wages, an in-house role is unlikely to pay back through a few saved hours alone. The case becomes stronger when the executive has a higher economic value per hour, the assistant supports more than one leader, or the role produces additional work with a defensible financial value.

Frequently asked questions

What is a realistic ROI for executive administrative support in 2026?

There is no reliable universal percentage. Using the latest BLS medians and a broad private industry benefit adjustment, an in-house support role costs about $109,414 in total compensation and a median chief executive hour is worth about $102.88 on a wage basis. The model breaks even at roughly 20.5 redirected executive hours per week before counting the assistant's direct output.

What salary should be used in an executive assistant ROI calculation?

The May 2025 U.S. median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants is $76,590. Add the employer's actual benefits and payroll costs. The June 2026 BLS private industry average assigns 30.0% of total compensation to benefits, but an employer's own data is better.

Does research prove that delegation increases revenue by 33%?

Gallup found that high-delegation CEOs in a sample of 143 Inc. 500 leaders had 33% higher average revenue than CEOs with lower delegation talent. This was an observational comparison, not a controlled test of executive assistant support, so it does not establish causation.

Which tasks should companies measure first?

Start with recurring work that has a clear owner and timestamp: calendar changes, inbox triage, meeting preparation, follow-up, travel planning, information requests, and reports. Compare the executive's time on those tasks before and after support begins.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025. Published May 15, 2026. National employer survey covering wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments.
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026. Published September 9, 2026. U.S. private industry wages and benefit costs.
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Top Executives, Occupational Outlook Handbook. Updated with May 2025 wage data and 2025 to 2035 projections.
4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants, Occupational Requirements Survey. 2025 U.S. occupational requirements.
5. Porter, Michael E., and Nitin Nohria. What Do CEOs Actually Do?. Harvard Business Review, July to August 2018. Time-use records for 27 CEOs over 13 weeks each.
6. Microsoft WorkLab. Breaking Down the Infinite Workday. Published June 17, 2025. Survey of 31,000 knowledge workers across 31 markets plus Microsoft 365 telemetry.
7. Gallup. Delegating: A Huge Management Challenge for Entrepreneurs. Published May 15, 2015. Analysis of 143 Inc. 500 CEOs and a separate sample of 1,446 U.S. employer entrepreneurs.

Related reading

• Executive Assistant Services
• Executive Assistant Productivity