Office managers keep an organization’s day-to-day operations running. Executive assistants work directly for one or more senior leaders. In Alberta, Job Bank reports a median wage of $30.77 an hour for administrative officers, the group that includes office managers, and $35.00 for executive assistants, with a Moderate outlook for both. Both roles usually ask for experience in a senior administrative job, and executive assistant postings usually ask for a bachelor’s degree as well.
The short version
- Pay: Alberta medians are $30.77 an hour for administrative officers (range $21.00 to $48.08) and $35.00 for executive assistants (range $26.92 to $48.08) (Job Bank, 2023–2024).
- Outlook 2025–2027: Moderate in Alberta for both. For office managers, Wood Buffalo–Cold Lake is the exception at Very limited.
- Entry: office manager roles usually need experience in a senior clerical or executive secretarial position, and a degree or college diploma in business or public administration may be required. Executive assistant roles usually need a bachelor’s degree and related administrative experience.
- Size: about 25,150 administrative officers and 3,900 executive assistants work in Alberta.
- Full-time work: 81% of administrative officers and 90% of executive assistants work full-time, and 88.4% and 96.6% of them have at least one non-wage benefit.
What office managers do
Office managers run the practical side of a workplace: schedules, supplies, vendors, facilities, equipment, and the paperwork that keeps new hires and contractors on track. In a small organization the role is broad and one person may cover facilities, bookkeeping support and HR paperwork. In a larger one the work splits into facilities, operations or administration.
What executive assistants do
Executive assistants support senior leaders such as a CEO, a director or a department head. The work covers calendar management, travel, meeting preparation, correspondence and project tracking. The strongest executive assistants anticipate what the leader will need next instead of waiting to be asked, and they handle confidential material with discretion.
| Task | Office manager | Executive assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Works for | The whole office or team | One or a few senior leaders |
| Calendar | Shared calendars, room bookings, office events | The leader’s calendar, meetings, travel, time protection |
| Money | Supply orders, vendor invoices, office budget | Expense reports, sign-offs, budget packages for the leader |
| People | Onboarding, desk and equipment set-up, visitor flow | Gatekeeping, liaison with board, clients and other executives |
| Documents | Policies, contracts with service providers, filing | Briefing notes, correspondence, meeting packages and minutes |
Job titles overlap in practice. Small employers often combine the two roles under one title.
Key skills employers want
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams), including shared calendars and mail merge.
- Calendar and project tools such as Asana, Monday.com or Notion.
- Professional communication, written and spoken, including short clear emails to senior people.
- Discretion with confidential information, from payroll details to unreleased plans.
- Problem-solving under time pressure, such as a double-booked meeting or a cancelled flight.
Name the skill and attach a number. Résumés for these roles read stronger when each bullet shows scope. Here is a template, with brackets for your own figures:
| Weak | Stronger (fill in your own numbers) |
|---|---|
| Handled calendars and meetings for the team. | Managed calendars for [number] managers, booking [number] meetings a week across [number] time zones, with no double-booked rooms. |
| Ordered office supplies. | Ran the monthly supply order for [number] staff, compared [number] vendor quotes and cut the monthly spend by [amount]. |
This is a template, not a real example. Only write numbers you can back up in an interview.
What the roles pay in Alberta
Job Bank reports an Alberta median of $30.77 an hour for administrative officers and $35.00 for executive assistants. By city, the administrative officer median is $29.13 in Calgary and $32.10 in Edmonton, and the executive assistant median is $34.60 in Edmonton. Canada-wide medians are $29.00 and $34.62.
Employers surveyed in 2023 reported median starting pay of $24.99 an hour for administrative officer positions and $30.95 for executive assistants. Those figures describe entry-level positions with the job title, and they sit about $6 an hour (administrative officers) and about $4 an hour (executive assistants) below the Job Bank medians. They are not what any program’s students will earn.
Office manager and executive assistant jobs in Alberta: the numbers
Official data about office managers and executive assistants across Alberta, from Job Bank (Government of Canada) and the Alberta Wage and Salary Survey. It describes these jobs, not what Ucademy students will earn, and it includes the less favourable figures as well as the good ones.
Source: Job Bank (NOC 13100, 12100) · wages updated Nov 19, 2025; outlook updated Dec 10, 2025.
View the data as a table
| Area | Low | Median | High | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin officers · Alberta | $21.00/hr | $30.77/hr | $48.08/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Admin officers · Calgary | $21.08/hr | $29.13/hr | $52.00/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Admin officers · Edmonton | $21.00/hr | $32.10/hr | $48.08/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Admin officers · Canada | $21.00/hr | $29.00/hr | $44.15/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Exec. assistants · Alberta | $26.92/hr | $35.00/hr | $48.08/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Exec. assistants · Calgary | $25.75/hr | $35.61/hr | $51.82/hr | Statistics Canada model estimate, 2024 |
| Exec. assistants · Edmonton | $26.92/hr | $34.60/hr | $45.67/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
| Exec. assistants · Canada | $25.85/hr | $34.62/hr | $49.00/hr | Labour Force Survey, 2023–2024 |
Job Bank’s “low” and “high” are, in most cases, the 10th and 90th percentiles: about one worker in ten earns the low figure or less and about one in ten earns the high figure or more. Wages depend on the employer, experience and location and are not guaranteed. Rows marked * are Statistics Canada model estimates for 2024 (Job Bank, Small Area Estimation) rather than survey results, so compare them with care.
Source: Job Bank, wages (NOC 13100, 12100) · wages updated Nov 19, 2025; reference period 2023–2024.
View the data as a table
| Low | Median | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin officers · start | $17.00/hr | $24.99/hr | $40.98/hr |
| Admin officers · overall | $21.32/hr | $30.20/hr | $50.67/hr |
| Admin officers · top | $24.00/hr | $35.00/hr | $72.12/hr |
| Exec. assistants · start | $21.63/hr | $30.95/hr | $43.96/hr |
| Exec. assistants · overall | $23.50/hr | $36.88/hr | $51.20/hr |
| Exec. assistants · top | $27.00/hr | $41.35/hr | $57.42/hr |
Bars show the 5th to 95th percentile of hourly pay among surveyed employers and the dot is the median. “Start” is the pay employers offered for entry-level positions with this job title; “top” is the pay offered to top-paid employees. It is not what any program’s graduates earn. The survey covers employers believed to have 8 or more employees and excludes overtime, tips, bonuses and benefits. It is a different survey from Job Bank, so the numbers differ. Data reliability codes: Admin officers: A (high); Exec. assistants: A (high).
Source: Alberta Wage and Salary Survey 2023 (alis) · employer survey, 2023.
| Alberta | Athabasca–Grande Prairie | Banff–Jasper | Calgary | Camrose–Drumheller | Edmonton | Lethbridge–Medicine Hat | Red Deer | Wood Buffalo–Cold Lake | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office manager / administrative officer NOC 13100 | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Very limited |
| Executive assistant NOC 12100 | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Undetermined | Moderate | Moderate | Undetermined | Undetermined |
Job Bank rates the outlook for each region from Very limited to Very good, or Undetermined where it cannot rate it.
Source: Job Bank, job prospects 2025–2027 · outlook updated Dec 10, 2025.
| Office manager / administrative officer | Executive assistant | |
|---|---|---|
| Job Bank occupation group | Administrative officers (NOC 13100) | Executive assistants (NOC 12100) |
| Alberta median (low–high) | $30.77 ($21.00–$48.08) | $35.00 ($26.92–$48.08) |
| Canada median | $29.00 | $34.62 |
| Work full-time | 81% | 90% |
| At least one non-wage benefit (Alberta) | 88.4% | 96.6% |
| Usual requirements (Job Bank) | Secondary school; a university degree or college diploma in business or public administration may be required; experience in a senior clerical or executive secretarial position is usually required | Secondary school; a bachelor’s degree in public administration, political science or a related discipline is usually required; experience in a related administrative occupation is usually required |
Executive assistant jobs usually ask for a bachelor’s degree plus related administrative experience; administrative officer jobs may ask for a degree or a college diploma.
Source: Job Bank, wages, outlooks and requirements · wages updated Nov 19, 2025; outlook updated Dec 10, 2025.
Data checked October 19, 2026: Job Bank wages updated Nov 19, 2025, outlooks Dec 10, 2025 (recent trends Jul 28, 2026); Alberta Wage and Salary Survey 2023. Occupation data, not a program outcome.
Where office manager and executive assistant jobs are in Alberta
Edmonton is home to the provincial government and Calgary to many corporate head offices, and Job Bank rates the outlook Moderate in both cities for both roles. The data above does not break these two groups down by industry. For the administrative assistant job, a common first step toward them, the biggest industries in Alberta are elementary and secondary schools (10% of workers), construction (8%), hospitals (7%) and ambulatory health care (6%).
Executive assistants have the fewer positions, about 3,900 in the province, and Job Bank cannot rate every region for them: Camrose–Drumheller, Red Deer and Wood Buffalo–Cold Lake are Undetermined. Plan to apply in the cities and to read postings from several industries.
- 1Start in an administrative role
Receptionist, administrative assistant or general office support. The Alberta median for administrative assistants is $26.43 an hour, and the outlook is Moderate. - 2Take on the wider tasks
Ask to own vendor contact, a small budget or the leader’s calendar. Write down what you handled and how often. - 3Collect a reference who can describe your scope
A manager who can say what you were trusted with counts for more than a job title. - 4Move into a senior clerical or executive secretarial role
Job Bank lists this experience as the usual requirement for office managers. Executive assistants are asked for experience in a related administrative occupation. - 5Apply, checking each posting’s education line
Some postings accept a college diploma plus experience; others ask for a bachelor’s degree.
Temporary staffing agencies can be an entry point to the first step, and some placements turn into permanent roles. Job Bank does not track individual career moves, so treat the path as a common shape, not a promise.
How to break in without experience
Certificate and diploma programs in business or office administration cover the base skills: office software, business writing, records and scheduling. What they cannot supply is the scope on your résumé, so pair study with real tasks, even at a volunteer organization, and get a reference.
Ucademy’s Administrative Assistant Diploma is 806 hours, about 12 months at 12 to 15 hours a week or about 7 months at full-time pace. The full list of programs shows the options in business and technology.
For the first rung of the path, our guides on becoming an administrative assistant in Alberta, the skills Alberta employers look for and administrative assistant pay in Alberta go into more detail.
Sources
- Job Bank, wages for administrative officers in Alberta (NOC 13100)
- Job Bank, outlook for administrative officers in Alberta, 2025–2027
- Job Bank, requirements for executive assistants in Alberta (NOC 12100)
- alis, Alberta Wage and Salary Survey 2023, administrative officers
- Job Bank, wages for administrative assistants in Alberta (NOC 13110)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an Office Manager and an Executive Assistant in Canada?
An Office Manager typically oversees the day-to-day operations of an office, managing facilities, supplies, and administrative staff. An Executive Assistant works closely with senior leaders, handling scheduling, communications, and high-level administrative tasks. Both roles are essential but differ in scope and the level of executive access involved.
What education do I need to become an Office Manager or Executive Assistant in Canada?
Most employers look for a diploma or certificate in business administration or office administration. Practical experience, strong organizational skills, and proficiency with office software (such as Microsoft 365) often carry significant weight alongside formal credentials.
Are these roles available outside major cities like Toronto and Vancouver?
Yes. Office management and executive support roles exist across Canada in cities of all sizes, including in Alberta in places like Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, and Lethbridge. Government offices, healthcare organizations, and private businesses all regularly hire for these positions.
What software skills are most important for Office Managers and Executive Assistants?
Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams) is foundational. Many employers also value experience with project management tools, calendar software, and basic bookkeeping applications such as QuickBooks. Strong written and verbal communication skills are equally important.