Salary Guide
Executive Assistant Salary Guide: What You Should Be Earning in 2026
Executive assistant pay varies more than almost any other support role because it tracks the seniority of the executive you back up, not just your own tenure. An EA answering to a department head and one running the calendar for a CEO or board chair can be doing fundamentally different jobs at fundamentally different price points. This guide breaks down what to expect at each stage and what actually moves the number.
Build Your CVCareer Path
Career Progression & Salary
Typical salary ranges at each career stage.
Junior Executive Assistant
€30K – €38K
Independently running a single executive's full calendar, inbox triage, and travel booking without daily oversight is what opens the door to a mid-level role.
Executive Assistant
€42K – €55K
Taking ownership of confidential board-pack preparation and cross-time-zone scheduling for a VP or SVP-level executive typically justifies the jump to senior EA.
Senior Executive Assistant
€60K – €78K
Being trusted to represent the executive in stakeholder communications and to manage a junior EA or admin coordinator signals readiness for C-suite-level support.
Executive Assistant to CEO / C-Suite
€85K – €108K
Becoming the executive's de facto chief of staff — owning board logistics, gatekeeping access, and running special projects — is what pushes pay into six figures.
Key Factors
Factors That Affect Salary
Seniority of the executive supported
High impactSupporting a CEO, founder, or board chair commands materially higher pay than supporting a department head or VP, because the stakes of every scheduling and confidentiality decision are higher.
Travel and calendar complexity
High impactCoordinating multi-country trips, visa logistics, and back-to-back board meetings across time zones is valued far more than managing a single-office calendar.
Exposure to confidential and sensitive matters
High impactEAs trusted with board materials, M&A discussions, or personnel matters before they're public are paid for the discretion and risk that access carries.
Company size and industry
Medium impactA publicly listed company or well-funded scale-up typically pays more for the same EA duties than a small private firm, since the executive's external obligations are heavier.
Track record of trust with one executive
Medium impactEAs who have supported the same leader through high-stakes events like IPOs or restructurings can negotiate a premium, since replacing that institutional trust is costly for the employer.
Negotiation
Salary Negotiation Tips
Quote a range anchored to the executive's level, not your job title alone — 'EA supporting a CEO of a 200-person company' justifies a different number than 'EA' on its own.
Bring evidence of the scope you actually carry: number of stakeholders managed, budget you control, or projects you run independently, not just calendar volume.
If base salary is capped by a banding system, negotiate the discretionary bonus, travel allowance, or a signing bonus instead.
Ask who you'd be supporting before naming a number — EA to a single VP and EA to a three-person C-suite are not the same negotiation.
Time the ask around a concrete trust milestone, such as taking over board meeting logistics or managing the executive's budget, rather than waiting for the annual review date.
Get confidentiality and after-hours availability expectations in writing, then price them into your ask — this role's hours are rarely nine-to-five.
Benchmark against EAs supporting similar executive levels in your city, not against general administrative assistant data, which undercounts this role by a wide margin.
Industry Comparison
Executive assistants supporting senior leadership consistently out-earn general administrative assistants and receptionists by 40-60%, reflecting the confidentiality, judgment, and executive-level access the role demands. Against an HR business partner at a similar company, a senior EA to the CEO often lands in a comparable band, sometimes higher once bonus and travel allowances are counted, even though the two roles are rarely benchmarked against each other directly. The gap versus a general administrative assistant only widens the closer you sit to the C-suite or board.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, consistently. Supporting a CEO or board chair typically adds 20-35% to base pay compared with supporting a VP or department head, because confidentiality requirements, travel complexity, and stakeholder exposure are substantially higher.
At the senior and C-suite-support levels, yes — many organizations attach a discretionary bonus of 5-15% of base salary tied to the executive's own performance cycle, though it's less common at the junior level.
Significantly. Executive assistants in finance, private equity, and tech tend to be paid 15-25% above the equivalent role in nonprofits or the public sector, largely because those industries pay their executives more and expect EAs to match that pace.
Yes, and many under-negotiate because the role is undervalued by candidates themselves. Coming with specifics — the number of executives supported, budget or vendor relationships managed, and confidentiality track record — puts the conversation on the same footing as any other senior hire.
Executive assistants to CEOs or board chairs at large or high-growth companies can reach €90K-€110K in major markets before the role formally converts to a chief of staff or business manager title with broader scope.
Marginally on its own, but it matters more as a tiebreaker between similar candidates — what raises pay is demonstrated experience managing board-level logistics and confidential material, not the certificate itself.
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