Executive assistant job description: template, exempt or not

Your CEO gets double-booked twice a week, the board pack goes out the night before, and nobody tracks what was decided at Tuesday's meeting. That's usually when someone writes the first executive assistant job description. An executive assistant is a senior administrative employee who runs one leader's time, correspondence and meetings, often with authority to act for that leader. BLS counts the job as executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants, about 489,300 jobs in 2025.

Our view up front: decide exempt status from the authority you actually hand over, not from the title. In our template only two duties, D8 and D10, hand over that kind of authority; the other eight are the support work O*NET lists for the job. In Washington even the national median salary misses the 2026 exempt floor, so the pay line also depends on where the EA works.

Executive assistant job description template, ready to paste

This is example wording to adapt, not a vetted legal form. Fill each [bracket] with your own detail. Leave the pay line blank until you've read the state rules further down, because the floor depends on where the EA works.

• Job title: Executive Assistant to the [Chief Executive Officer]
• Summary: Runs the [CEO]'s calendar, travel, inbox and meeting cycle, keeps confidential records, and follows up on decisions until they close.
• Reporting line: [Chief Executive Officer]; works daily with the [leadership team].
• Location and schedule: [hybrid, 3 office days a week in City, State] or [remote within named states]; full time.
• Pay: $[minimum] to $[maximum] a year, [exempt or non-exempt], plus [benefits].
• Equal opportunity: [Company] is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and transgender status), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.

Most duties below name a deadline or limit you'll check at a 90-day review. Eight are tagged essential. Duties 8 and 10 (D8 and D10 from here on) hand over real authority.

1. Manage the [CEO]'s calendar across [time zones], protect focus blocks, and confirm the next day's schedule by [5 p.m.]. [Essential]
2. Book and change travel inside the [travel policy] and send a one-page itinerary [48 hours] before departure. [Essential]
3. Triage the [CEO]'s inbox and mail each morning and route each item to the person who owns it. [Essential]
4. Draft replies to routine letters and emails, and send them under the [CEO]'s standing rules. [Essential]
5. Build agendas and briefing packs for [leadership and board] meetings and send them [2 business days] ahead. [Essential]
6. Take minutes at [leadership] meetings and send decisions, owners and dates within [24 hours]. [Essential]
7. Keep confidential files (contracts, board papers, personnel matters) in [system], open only to [named roles]. [Essential]
8. Track every action item from those minutes, chase owners until it closes, and report open items each [Friday]. [Essential]
9. Research topics and compile data into short memos for the [CEO]. [Marginal]
10. Meet vendors and partners for the [CEO] and approve requests up to [a set dollar limit]. [Marginal]

For requirements, BLS says executive assistants typically need several years of related work experience in other administrative jobs. It adds that employers may prefer some college or a bachelor's degree, and O*NET's survey of people already in the job splits much the same way. There, 34% named an associate's degree, 24% a high school diploma and 21% some college, so we've left the degree as a preference.

• [3] or more years supporting a senior leader in an administrative role.
• Associate's degree, some college, or equal work experience; [bachelor's preferred].
• Daily use of [your calendar, email, document and spreadsheet tools].
• A record of handling confidential information with care.

The essential and marginal tags come from the ADA. Under 29 CFR 1630.2(n), essential functions are "the fundamental job duties" of the position.

The EEOC's ADA guide for employers covers employers with 15 or more employees and treats a written job description prepared before you advertise as evidence of essential functions. Keep the tags in your internal copy even if the public post drops them.

Diagram by DigitalTreed: our EA template drawn as a posting, each duty's O*NET 43-6011.00 match marked, November 4, 2026.

Confidentiality and remote-work clauses

An EA sees board papers, deal terms and often everyone's salary, so we'd add a confidentiality clause to the offer. This is our example wording, not a vetted contract: "You will see confidential business, board and personnel information, including other employees' pay. Keep it confidential during and after your employment and share it only with people who need it for their work. This does not limit your right to discuss your own pay or working conditions, or to speak with a government agency."

That last sentence comes from state law. California's Labor Commissioner FAQ says an employer can't stop an employee "from disclosing the employee's own wages." Washington's L&I equal pay page bans wage non-disclosure agreements. It still lets an employer require staff who see other people's pay as part of their duties to keep that pay confidential. L&I adds that employers can't retaliate against an employee for talking about wages. Our clause follows the split: the payroll an EA sees stays private, and the EA's own pay doesn't.

For hybrid or remote roles, our example reads: "This role is [hybrid: in the office Tuesday to Thursday] or [remote from these states: list]. You travel with the [CEO] up to [4] times a quarter. We provide [a laptop and phone]. Your work state sets your pay rules and overtime status." That last line matters because the work state, not the head office, sets the overtime floor. California's pay-scale rule also reaches jobs that "may ever be filled in California, either in-person or remotely."

How the duties line up with O*NET 43-6011

O*NET's task list for 43-6011.00 has 23 tasks, 15 of them core, and names Executive Assistant among its sample titles.

Nine of our ten duties map to an O*NET task statement that our script found word for word on O*NET's page. The calendar duty maps to "Manage and maintain executives' schedules," O*NET's top task at an importance of 85 out of 100. Travel follows at 81, routine replies at 76 and the inbox at 75. Minutes sit lower, at 63. D8, the follow-up duty, is the one miss. O*NET's EA handles paper and schedules, but it doesn't chase action items to closure. We kept it essential anyway. Its Friday report gives you a record to check at the 90-day review.

The BLS handbook says executive assistants provide high-level support for top executives, and that they "often handle complex responsibilities, such as reviewing incoming documents, conducting research, and preparing reports."

The handbook adds that "Some also supervise clerical staff," so if your EA will manage a receptionist, write that in as a duty, since it changes the exemption question.

What BLS pays executive assistants

The handbook Pay tab, last modified August 27, 2026, lists a median of $76,590 for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in May 2025. O*NET's 43-6011.00 summary shows the same number, or $36.82 an hour. The wider group pays far less. All secretaries and administrative assistants had a May 2025 median of $48,310, with the lowest 10% under $35,360 and the highest 10% over $77,720. Legal secretaries came in at $55,570, general administrative assistants at $47,540 and medical secretaries at $45,930. So an EA hire prices close to the top 10% of the broader group.

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Pay tab, May 2025 wages, read November 4, 2026. Chart drawn by us.

These figures come from the May 2025 OEWS survey, which BLS released on May 15, 2026, so they describe May 2025 pay, not today's. The OEWS profile for code 43-6011 breaks the same data out by state, metro area and industry. Our competitive pay guide walks through those percentiles one step at a time. Demand is flat. BLS projects 489,200 jobs in 2035, down 100 from 2025, which rounds to 0% change. The handbook ties that to AI and digital tools that let staff prepare their own documents. It also notes that many executive assistants "support more than one manager in an organization." O*NET still lists 43,300 projected openings, which it says come from growth and replacement.

Executive assistant, administrative assistant or chief of staff

The title turns on whom the person serves (a team, one or two executives, or the whole executive team), and federal data prices only the first two.

BLS says the wider group of secretaries and administrative assistants "do routine clerical and organizational tasks." O*NET files general administrative assistants, who work for a team or office, under code 43-6014, while executive assistants support named top executives under 43-6011. The gap in May 2025 medians was $29,050 a year, so the title you pick moves the budget by about 61%.

Chief of staff is harder to price. We searched O*NET for the title on November 4, 2026, and its quick search returned "No quick matches found," so no federal pay series exists for it. If the job runs operations and manages people, our reading is that the nearest codes are management ones, such as General and Operations Managers at a $105,770 median in 2025. The Chief Executives profile, at $213,990, lists COO and CFO among its titles, but not chief of staff.

DOL's executive exemption fact sheet requires a manager to "customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent." The same fact sheet also asks for the authority to hire or fire, or for hiring and firing advice that is given particular weight. A chief of staff with no direct reports doesn't meet it, and our span of control guide covers how many reports one manager can carry. That person falls back on the same administrative test an EA faces. If you'd rather hire a second-in-command, our COO job description covers that hire. A revenue-owning role belongs in the business development director template, and a finance hire in our senior accountant job description.

Can you pay an executive assistant a salary with no overtime?

That administrative test decides the most common line in EA posts, "salaried, exempt." DOL's Fact Sheet 17A says "Job titles do not determine exempt status." Under Fact Sheet 17C and 29 CFR 541.200, the administrative exemption needs all three of these:

1. A salary of at least the standard level, paid on a salary or fee basis.
2. A primary duty of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or its customers.
3. A primary duty that includes discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

The rules name EAs directly. 29 CFR 541.203(d) covers an executive or administrative assistant to a business owner or senior executive of a large business. Such an assistant generally meets the duties test "if such employee, without specific instructions or prescribed procedures, has been delegated authority regarding matters of significance." California's Labor Commissioner glossary uses similar words for assistants who hold part of an executive's discretionary powers.

So a calendar-and-inbox job usually fails the third test, however senior the boss. Fact Sheet 17C says discretion must be "more than the use of skill in applying well-established techniques." And 29 CFR 541.202 asks whether the employee has "authority to make an independent choice, free from immediate direction or supervision." In our template, only D8 and D10 carry that kind of authority, so don't write them in unless you'll truly delegate them.

The salary test is simpler. As of November 2026, DOL's salary levels page lists $684 a week, or $35,568 a year.

A 2024 rule did raise it to $844 on July 1, 2024, and set $1,128 for January 1, 2025. Two Texas federal courts vacated that rule on November 15 and December 30, 2024, before the second step began. The Fifth Circuit dismissed both appeals on May 5 and 7, 2026, and DOL restored the 2019 text in a technical amendment published May 15, 2026. So 29 CFR 541.600 reads $684 again. That's our reading of DOL's own pages, not advice for your case. DOL wrote that the amendment doesn't block a new rulemaking later, so recheck before you sign an offer.

State salary floors above $684 in California, New York and Washington

That $684 is a federal minimum, and a state can set a higher one; the stricter rule wins. Each floor below covers the salary test only, taken from three state agencies' own pages.

California's January 1, 2026 figure comes from the DIR's December 5, 2025 release, which multiplies the $16.90 state minimum wage by 2, by 40 hours and by 52 weeks. New York's minimum wage FAQ gives $1,199.10 to $1,275.00 a week from January 1, 2026, and the state Attorney General's wages page shows the same two numbers by region.

Washington is the outlier. Its 2026 minimum wage is $17.13 an hour, and 2.25 times that over a 40-hour week gives $1,541.70. L&I's overtime rules Q&A and its 2026 minimum wage release both put the floor at $1,541.70 a week, and the Q&A says it keeps rising until 2028. The BLS median of $76,590 works out to $1,472.88 a week. A Seattle EA paid the national median is $3,578.40 a year short, so that hire is non-exempt in Washington whatever the duties say. To keep a Washington EA exempt, pay at least $80,168.40, or go hourly with overtime. In New York City, the same median clears the $1,275.00 floor by $197.88 a week.

Diagram by DigitalTreed, from DOL, California DIR, New York DOL and Washington L&I pages and the BLS May 2025 median, read November 4, 2026.

What we tested

We ran a small script over saved copies of the O*NET task page and the DOL, California, New York and Washington pages on November 4, 2026. For 9 duties it found the O*NET statement we mapped them to, word for word, on the saved page; D8 had no statement to map. It then ran three example salaries, which we made up, against the five floors. At $60,000 only the federal floor is met. At $68,000 the federal and both New York floors are met, but California and Washington aren't. At the $76,590 median, every floor except Washington's is met.

Screenshot: our exempt status check page on 127.0.0.1, made-up salaries, November 4, 2026.

When the EA is non-exempt: overtime and time records

A Washington EA under the floor can still be paid a salary. DOL's overtime fact sheet says earnings may be set on a salary basis.

Overtime still applies: a non-exempt worker is owed at least time and one-half the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The fact sheet defines a workweek as "a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours." Weekends and holidays don't trigger overtime by themselves.

Here's an example with made-up inputs. Take an EA on a $60,000 salary meant to cover 40 hours who works 45 in one week. The regular rate is $60,000 / 52 / 40 = $28.85 an hour, and time and one-half is $43.27, so five extra hours add $216.35 to that week's pay. You'll also need a time record. DOL's recordkeeping fact sheet lists "Hours worked each day" and "Total hours worked each workweek" among the records required for every non-exempt worker. Payroll records must be kept at least three years, and time cards and work schedules for two. A shared calendar isn't a time record, so set up a time-tracking method before day one.

Which states make you print the pay range?

California's pay transparency FAQ says "An employer with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale for a position in any job posting." It means "a good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range." Washington's RCW 49.58.110 asks employers with 15 or more employees for "The wage scale or salary range." New York's Department of Labor applies its rule to businesses "with four or more employees," and its FAQ dates it: "The law goes into effect on September 17, 2023." Colorado's SB23-105 adds compensation, benefits and the date the application window is expected to close. Our competitive pay guide compares all of these state by state.

Federal law also limits what the ad may say. The EEOC says a job ad may not show a preference based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

Its example of a bad ad asks for "recent college graduates," so leave age-coded words such as "digital native" out of the EA post too.

We'd post the range from your metro's OEWS percentiles and mark the job non-exempt unless D8 and D10 are real and the salary clears your state's floor. Track hours from the first week. For a $76,590 offer in Seattle, the choice is non-exempt with overtime, or a salary of at least $80,168.40. Put the reporting line and the D8 weekly report in the offer letter, and keep D8 and D10 only if the CEO has agreed to hand those decisions over. Then run the interviews with our hiring manager checklist, and if the EA will run board meetings, our board meeting software guide covers the tools that hold those files.

How we made this guide: The 36 sources listed below were saved on November 4, 2026 with a plain script, and every quote here matches the saved copy. DOL's rulemaking page and the Federal Register site refused our script, so we read DOL's May 15, 2026 rule on govinfo.gov instead. We ran the duty check and salary-floor grid above locally, on made-up salaries. Facts checked by the DigitalTreed team on November 4, 2026.

First published April 2025 with no sources. Rewritten November 4, 2026 as a template with BLS, O*NET, DOL and state agency facts. Steps only, not legal advice; for a multi-state or remote hire, ask an employment lawyer.

Sources

• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
• BLS OEWS profile: 43-6011 Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants, May 2025
• BLS: Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025 (news release, May 15, 2026)
• O*NET OnLine: 43-6011.00 Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants (summary)
• O*NET OnLine: 43-6011.00 (details, tasks)
• O*NET OnLine: 43-6014.00 Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
• O*NET OnLine: quick search for chief of staff
• O*NET OnLine: 11-1021.00 General and Operations Managers
• O*NET OnLine: 11-1011.00 Chief Executives
• DOL Fact Sheet 17A: Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees
• DOL Fact Sheet 17B: Exemption for Executive Employees
• DOL Fact Sheet 17C: Exemption for Administrative Employees
• DOL: Earnings thresholds for the EAP exemption
• DOL final rule, 91 FR 27833, Implementation of Federal Court Judgments (May 15, 2026, govinfo)
• 29 CFR 541.200, administrative employees (Cornell LII)
• 29 CFR 541.202, discretion and independent judgment (Cornell LII)
• 29 CFR 541.203, administrative exemption examples (Cornell LII)
• 29 CFR 541.600, amount of salary required (Cornell LII)
• DOL Fact Sheet 23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
• DOL Fact Sheet 21: Recordkeeping Requirements under the FLSA
• California DIR: minimum wage to increase to $16.90 per hour on January 1, 2026
• California DIR: Minimum wage
• California Labor Commissioner: Glossary (administrative exemption)
• New York State DOL: Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
• New York State Attorney General: Wages and pay
• Washington L&I: Changes to overtime rules Q&A
• Washington L&I: minimum wage going up to $17.13 an hour in 2026
• 29 CFR 1630.2, ADA definitions (Cornell LII)
• EEOC: The ADA, your responsibilities as an employer
• EEOC: Prohibited employment policies and practices
• California DIR: Equal Pay Act and pay transparency FAQ
• Washington State Legislature: RCW 49.58.110
• Washington L&I: Equal Pay and Opportunities Act
• New York State DOL: Pay transparency
• New York State DOL: Pay Transparency Act FAQ
• Colorado General Assembly: SB23-105