The role of an Executive PA involves a large variety of work and often requires in-depth understanding of the sector that they are working in, as well as having all of the necessary skills to deal with the requirements of the executive PAs they are assisting.
The salary of an Executive Personal Assistant can vary greatly, depending on experience, qualifications, the employer and the location. According to Glassdoor, the average base pay for Executive Personal Assistants in the UK is £30,388 (as of 14 February 2021).
The salaries ranged between £24,000 to £46,000, showing how career progression can help Executive PAs to earn considerably more money than when they first start out.
There were similar findings on another salary calculation website Payscale, who revealed that the average base salary for an Executive Assistant is £30,971. Again, there was a large difference between the bottom of the pay scale and the top of the pay scale, starting from £22,000 and the highest salary being £47,000.
How to become an Executive Personal Assistant
In order to be offered a role and have the chance to progress up the ladder as an Executive Personal Assistant, it is important to gain an insight into the needs of the modern employer. This means understanding key business priorities and being proficient at using software that is required, such as Microsoft Office.
The job market is particularly competitive at the moment and some of the currently advertised Executive PA roles are working from home, at least until the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. This means that you may need to be more comfortable with using technology such as video conferencing software and other digital tools that enable work to be completed without having physical meetings.
For many people, this change is a big challenge, especially if they have been working in an office for many years and are not familiar with setting up and using video conferencing and other online tools. However, there are lots of different training options that can help you to quickly get up to speed with using new technology.
Even after life gets a bit more back to normal when the pandemic ends, it is expected that a lot of roles will be home based in the situation where work can be completed from home, as a safer and often more convenient alternative to travelling to the office every day.
Qualifications for Executive Personal Assistants
For Executive PAs who want to progress to earn a salary at the higher end of the scale, having the recognised Executive Personal Assistant qualifications, such as the Level 5 Executive Assistance from the IEAA will help.
Many of the people who are at the higher end of the pay scale will also have been working as an Executive PA for many years and their employers usually operate with a salary scale where employees have the opportunity to get a pay rise each year. This can be performance related, or sometimes there is an automatic salary increment that is applied each year. These factors will also affect how much you are able to earn as an Executive PA.
Pay variances due to location
Jobs that are based in London tend to pay much higher than the same roles in other parts of the UK and this also applies for Executive PA roles. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for an Executive PA based in London is £37,057, so that is almost £7,000 more than the average for the UK.
There are a lot of factors that will influence how much you earn as an executive PA but qualifications and experience, combined with an employer that pays well, will help to ensure you keep progressing towards the higher end of the salary scale.