How Much Should a Part Time Personal Assistant Charge?

Those with the necessary clerical and time management skills and experience may wish to consider work as a part-time personal assistant as a viable way to earn some extra income. The upside to working on a part-time basis is having greater flexibility regarding your work schedule or the opportunity to work for multiple clients at the same time. One difficulty in going this part-time route, however, is in determining how much you should charge for your time and effort.

Average Pay

One way to determine how much you should charge for your work as a part-time personal assistant is to simply base it on the industry averages for secretaries and administrative assistants. The average hourly rate of pay for those working in the field was $15.38, as of May 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, those with advanced skills and knowledge of the corporate world may be able to charge the average hourly rate for executive secretaries and administrative assistants. The bureau notes that these assistants made an average of $22.05 per hour in 2010.

Pay Scale

Another way to determine how much you should charge as a part-timer personal assistant is to base it on the overall pay scale for secretaries and administrative assistants. According to the BLS, the median hourly rate of pay for secretaries and administrative assistants was $14.82, while executive secretaries made $20.92 per hour. It is also possible to charge a rate of pay somewhere in the middle half of of the pay scale. For instance, 50 percent of all secretaries and administrative assistants made between $11.88 and $18.35 per hour. The middle half of all executive secretaries made between $16.79 and $26.32 per hour. Charging a rate in the middle of the pay scale may keep you from getting outbid by others also trying to gain part-time work in this field.

Industries

You can narrow down the range of pay you should charge to more specific numbers by examining the field in which you will be providing your services. For example, the average rate of pay for administrative assistants in state government agencies was $16.13 per hour in 2010, according to the BLS. Those working in elementary and secondary schools made $15.76 per hour, while those employed in real estate made $13.85 per hour. Executive administrative assistant pay rates also vary by industry. Those working in colleges and universities made an average of $21.48 per hour, while those employed by state governments made $20.78 per hour. Those employed in the financial investing sector commanded an average hourly rate of $27.05.

Location

Examining pay rates by location also provides an additional check and balance system to ensure that you are not charging too much or too little for your services. For example, if you work in the state of New York, you can expect to make an average hourly rate of $16.72, as of 2010, as an administrative assistant. Executive assistants in New York can command $26.51 per hour, on average. The highest paid administrative assistants worked in the District of Columbia earning an average of $23.19 per hour, while executive assistants in New Jersey made the highest average at $26.59 per hour.

References

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: 43-6014 Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: 43-6011 Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants