What Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive earn in Shelby County, AL
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $44,580: the median annual pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $21.43 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Birmingham, AL metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $45,020, which is 1.0% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 10,900 people working in this occupation across the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Shelby County, AL has roughly 230,211 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $30,960 a year ($14.88 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $60,380 or more ($29.03 an hour). That is a gap of $29,420 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,840 at the 25th percentile and $51,890 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.0 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL is $21.43. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $44,580, and the same salary is $3,715 a month before taxes or about $1,715 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $17.38 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive this way: "Perform routine administrative functions such as drafting correspondence, scheduling appointments, organizing and maintaining paper and electronic files, or providing information to callers."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Answer telephones and give information to callers, take messages, or transfer calls to appropriate individuals"; "Greet visitors or callers and handle their inquiries or direct them to the appropriate persons according to their needs"; "Locate and attach appropriate files to incoming correspondence requiring replies"; "Open, read, route, and distribute incoming mail or other materials and answer routine letters".
Job outlook for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to shrink from 1,889,800 jobs in 2025 to 1,775,700 in 2035, a change of -6%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 163,900 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 8.7% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $47,540 for this occupation; the Shelby County, AL median of $44,580 is 6.2% below it.
How pay in Shelby County, AL compares
Compared with the Alabama average
Shelby County, AL pays above the state benchmark. The Alabama employment-weighted average for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $41,881; the local median of $44,580 beats it by $2,699, or 6.4%. Within Alabama, Shelby County, AL already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $47,842 across the contiguous United States. At $44,580, Shelby County, AL pays $3,262 less, which is 6.8% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Shelby County, AL
Among the 451 occupations with published wages in Shelby County, AL, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive ranks number 316 by median pay, ahead of about 30% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $123,560 a year, which is $78,980 more than the median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $44,580 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $8,434 a year, which leaves $36,146, or $3,012 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $19 goes to taxes and $81 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 18.9%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $28,830. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $3,221, an effective 7.2% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $2,764 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $646. FICA totals $3,410, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Alabama
Alabama income tax on this salary is $1,803 a year, or 4.0% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 56% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $150 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Shelby County, AL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Shelby County, AL show an average adjusted gross income of $105,725 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 14.1% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.3%, compared with the 7.2% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Shelby County, AL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Shelby County, AL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $36,146 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Shelby County, AL is $1,263 a month, or $15,156 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,375 a month. For Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive, a one-bedroom absorbs 41.9% of take-home pay and 34.0% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 7.7% of gross pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Alabama residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,604 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $737, for $2,341 in total. Gasoline in Alabama averages $2.89 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,338.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $22,270 a year, 62% of take-home pay. That leaves $13,875 a year, or $1,156 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 31.1% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Shelby County, AL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Shelby County, AL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Shelby County, AL, set beside the Alabama and national medians.
Property taxes in Shelby County, AL
Homeowners in Shelby County, AL pay a median of $1,423 a year in real estate taxes, 81% above the Alabama median of $788 and 54% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $326,100, the median tax bill is 0.44% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive median of $44,580, a tax bill of that size would equal 3.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Shelby County, AL
Renters in Shelby County, AL pay a median gross rent of $1,401 a month in the Census survey, 39% above the Alabama median of $1,007. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,263 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $326,100, 55% above the Alabama median of $209,900. Median household income is $97,961, 53% above the Alabama median of $63,999, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 15.5% of that income.
Commuting in Shelby County, AL
Workers in Shelby County, AL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.5 minutes each way, 16% above the Alabama average of 25.5. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.9 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 16.9% of workers in Shelby County, AL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive afford to live in Shelby County, AL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $44,580 that ceiling is $1,115 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,263 is $149 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $24.29 an hour; the median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $21.43, which is 12% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $17.38 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 16.8 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,375 a month means $688 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,906 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $20,781.
How fast you can save
At $1,156 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 9 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 18 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive pay in Shelby County, AL
What is the hourly wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL?
The median is $21.43 per hour, based on $44,580 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $14.88 at the 10th percentile to $29.03 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $44,580 becomes $36,146 a year. That is $3,012 a month, $1,390 every two weeks or $695 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL?
Total taxes are $8,434 a year, an effective rate of 18.9%: $3,221 federal income tax, $3,410 FICA and $1,803 Alabama income tax.
Is pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL above the Alabama average?
Yes. The local median of $44,580 is +6.4% versus the Alabama average of $41,881, a difference of $2,699 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive salary in Shelby County, AL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,263 a month against take-home pay of $3,012, which is 41.9% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,115 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Shelby County, AL?
About $1,156 a month ($13,875 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $22,270 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Shelby County, AL at the 30% guideline?
$24.29 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $15,156 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $21.43.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Birmingham, AL metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Alabama rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.