Office and Sales salary guide
Salary Needed for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Tennessee
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in Tennessee: compare salary needs with estimated annual costs. Basic costs are about $43,152, while a 20% cushion is about $51,782.
Updated with BLS OEWS source metadata from May 2025; cost estimates reflect current WatchPennies county-level data.
Salary adequacy in Tennessee
WatchPennies compares secretary or administrative assistant salary context with statewide median county costs for a single adult household. The comfort target adds a 20% cushion for savings, emergencies, and month-to-month variation.
Baseline annual costs
$43,152
About $3,596 per month.
Comfort salary target
$51,782
About $4,315 per month.
OEWS median salary
$45,810
Adequacy versus comfort target: 88%.
The available salary benchmark is $5,972 below the WatchPennies comfort target for Tennessee.
Estimated cost mix
View Tennessee cost of livingMore Secretaries and Administrative Assistants states
Compare salary-needed targets for this occupation across all states.
Tennessee cost of living
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Common questions
What salary is needed for secretaries and administrative assistants in Tennessee?
WatchPennies estimates baseline annual costs around $43,152 for a single adult household in Tennessee. A 20% comfort cushion is about $51,782.
Does this page use an official Tennessee wage benchmark?
Yes. The occupation wage benchmark on this page is imported from BLS OEWS.
What costs are included in the salary-needed estimate?
The estimate includes housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare where applicable, other necessities, taxes, and income context from WatchPennies cost data.
Related occupation pages
Sources
Wage benchmark fields are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025, last modified 2026-05-15). Cost estimates use WatchPennies county cost data for housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, necessities, taxes, and income context.