What Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive earn in Tunica County, MS
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $45,960: the median annual pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $22.10 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $46,240, which is 0.6% above the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 5,500 people working in this occupation across the Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Tunica County, MS has roughly 9,475 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 Memphis, TN-MS-AR metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $28,160 a year ($13.54 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $63,370 or more ($30.47 an hour). That is a gap of $35,210 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $36,980 at the 25th percentile and $54,020 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 2.3 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 Tunica County, MS is $22.10. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $45,960, and the same salary is $3,830 a month before taxes or about $1,768 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $18.19 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 Tunica County, MS median of $45,960 is 3.3% below it.
How pay in Tunica County, MS compares
Compared with the Mississippi average
Tunica County, MS pays above the state benchmark. The Mississippi employment-weighted average for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $39,587; the local median of $45,960 beats it by $6,373, or 16.1%. Within Mississippi, Tunica County, MS 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 $45,960, Tunica County, MS pays $1,882 less, which is 3.9% 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 Tunica County, MS
Among the 502 occupations with published wages in Tunica County, MS, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive ranks number 342 by median pay, ahead of about 32% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $102,510 a year, which is $56,550 more than the median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $45,960 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 $8,120 a year, which leaves $37,840, or $3,153 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $18 goes to taxes and $82 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $30,210. 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 $3,387, an effective 7.4% 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 $2,850 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $666. FICA totals $3,516, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Mississippi
Mississippi income tax on this salary is $1,217 a year, or 2.6% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 36% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $101 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 Tunica County, MS
IRS Statistics of Income data for Tunica County, MS show an average adjusted gross income of $41,448 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 7.6% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 3.0%, compared with the 7.4% 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 Tunica County, MS
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Tunica County, MS: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $37,840 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Tunica County, MS is $1,062 a month, or $12,744 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,156 a month. For Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive, a one-bedroom absorbs 33.7% of take-home pay and 27.7% 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 7.5% of gross pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Mississippi residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,415 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $612, for $2,028 in total. Gasoline in Mississippi averages $2.90 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,342.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $19,550 a year, 52% of take-home pay. That leaves $18,291 a year, or $1,524 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 39.8% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Tunica County, MS
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Tunica County, MS: 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 Tunica County, MS, set beside the Mississippi and national medians.
Property taxes in Tunica County, MS
Homeowners in Tunica County, MS pay a median of $940 a year in real estate taxes, 23% below the Mississippi median of $1,215 and 70% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $175,900, the median tax bill is 0.53% 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 $45,960, a tax bill of that size would equal 2.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Tunica County, MS
Renters in Tunica County, MS pay a median gross rent of $977 a month in the Census survey, 2% above the Mississippi median of $954. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,062 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 $175,900, 4% above the Mississippi median of $169,800. Median household income is $39,364, 30% below the Mississippi median of $56,447, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 32.4% of that income.
Commuting in Tunica County, MS
Workers in Tunica County, MS who travel to a workplace spend an average of 29.4 minutes each way, 15% above the Mississippi average of 25.6. 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. 1.1% of workers in Tunica County, MS 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 Tunica County, MS?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $45,960 that ceiling is $1,149 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,062 is $87 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $20.42 an hour; the median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $22.10, which is 8% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $18.19 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 13.5 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,156 a month means $578 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,808 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $24,099.
How fast you can save
At $1,524 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 7 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 14 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 Tunica County, MS
What is the hourly wage for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS?
The median is $22.10 per hour, based on $45,960 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $13.54 at the 10th percentile to $30.47 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $45,960 becomes $37,840 a year. That is $3,153 a month, $1,455 every two weeks or $728 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS?
Total taxes are $8,120 a year, an effective rate of 17.7%: $3,387 federal income tax, $3,516 FICA and $1,217 Mississippi income tax.
Is pay for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS above the Mississippi average?
Yes. The local median of $45,960 is +16.1% versus the Mississippi average of $39,587, a difference of $6,373 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive salary in Tunica County, MS?
A one-bedroom costs $1,062 a month against take-home pay of $3,153, which is 33.7% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,149 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive in Tunica County, MS?
About $1,524 a month ($18,291 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $19,550 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Tunica County, MS at the 30% guideline?
$20.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $12,744 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive is $22.10.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Memphis, TN-MS-AR 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 Mississippi 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.