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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants Salary: Fort Smith, AR-OK vs San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants earn a median of $54,650 in Fort Smith, AR-OK and $104,010 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. That is a nominal gap of $49,360 (-47.5%), with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$54,650
Fort Smith, AR-OK median
$63,629 after COL
$104,010
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA median
$94,192 after COL
-47.5%
Nominal gap
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA leads
-32.4%
Adjusted gap
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA pays $49,360 more per year than Fort Smith, AR-OK for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, a gap of +47.5%.

After adjusting for cost of living, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $30,563 of extra purchasing power (+32.4% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants

Fort Smith, AR-OK

Median salary
$54,650
Mean salary
$57,810
Employment
90
Location quotient
0.31
Jobs per 1,000
1.0
COL-adjusted median
$63,629
Regional Price Parity
85.9%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants page for Fort Smith, AR-OK →

Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Median salary
$104,010
Mean salary
$112,680
Employment
6,110
Location quotient
1.76
Jobs per 1,000
5.4
COL-adjusted median
$94,192
Regional Price Parity
110.4%

Exact metro RPP match.

Full Executive Secretaries And Executive Administrative Assistants page for San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA →

Related pages

Keep digging into executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants from a different angle.

Common questions about this comparison

What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +

It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.

Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +

High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.

What is a location quotient? +

The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a metro specializes in.