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Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants Salary: Michigan vs District of Columbia

Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants earn a median of $56,030 in Michigan and $101,170 in District of Columbia. That is a nominal gap of $45,140 (-44.6%), with District of Columbia 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.

$56,030
Michigan median
$58,233 after COL
$101,170
District of Columbia median
$92,056 after COL
-44.6%
Nominal gap
District of Columbia leads
-36.7%
Adjusted gap
District of Columbia leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, District of Columbia pays $45,140 more per year than Michigan for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, a gap of +44.6%.

After adjusting for cost of living, District of Columbia still comes out ahead, with roughly $33,823 of extra purchasing power (+36.7% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

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

Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants

Michigan

Median salary
$56,030
Mean salary
$57,200
Employment
3,070
Location quotient
0.70
Jobs per 1,000
0.7
COL-adjusted median
$58,233
Regional Price Parity
96.2%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants page for Michigan →

Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants

District of Columbia

Median salary
$101,170
Mean salary
$95,280
Employment
2,040
Location quotient
2.86
Jobs per 1,000
2.9
COL-adjusted median
$92,056
Regional Price Parity
109.9%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Legal Secretaries And Administrative Assistants page for District of Columbia →

Related pages

Keep digging into legal secretaries and 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 state specializes in.