executive assistant to executive ratio
Abstract
There is no defensible universal executive assistant to executive ratio. In a 2024 survey of 3,916 administrative professionals, 42 percent supported two to five people and 12 percent supported six to nine. [1] A separate 2025 survey of 600 executive assistants found that 41.7 percent supported one executive, 40 percent supported two or three, and 17.8 percent supported four or more. [2] These self-reported distributions describe current assignments. They do not prove that each assignment is sustainable or that the same ratio fits a growing company.
Methodology
This review uses two surveys that disclose their samples and collection periods, plus federal occupational data. The American Society of Administrative Professionals report covers 3,916 responses collected for its 2024 study, including 3,421 respondents who supported an executive or executive team. [1] The Vimcal report covers 600 self-reported responses collected August 14 through 31, 2025, mainly from its users and readers of CCing My EA. [2] Bureau of Labor Statistics employment figures describe the national occupation in 2024. [3] Survey findings are kept separate from administrative employment estimates, and no result is presented as an ideal staffing ratio.
What current ratio surveys show
The 2024 American Society of Administrative Professionals survey found that 17 percent of respondents supported one person, 42 percent supported two to five, 12 percent supported six to nine, and 27 percent supported 10 or more. The reported average was five to six people. [1] The question covered people supported in the workplace, so the results are broader than a count of executives assigned to an executive assistant.
The 2025 Vimcal survey asked 600 executive assistants how many executives they supported. It found 41.7 percent supported one, 40 percent supported two or three, 12.1 percent supported four or five, and 5.7 percent supported six or more. Another 0.5 percent reported none. [2] The sample was recruited mainly from a calendar product community and an executive assistant newsletter. Nearly half of respondents had more than 10 years of experience, and 77 percent were in the United States. [2]
Taken together, the surveys show that shared support is common. They do not identify a threshold at which quality declines. The questions, respondent pools, and definitions differ, so averaging the results would create false precision.
Why the national occupation count is not a ratio
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants held 502,800 jobs in 2024. The broader secretary and administrative assistant group held about 3.5 million jobs. [3] Those are employment estimates, not a count of dedicated executive assistant assignments.
The federal occupation includes high-level administrative support such as research, reports, correspondence, calls, visitors, and scheduling. BLS also notes that workers often prioritize tasks and make decisions on an employer's behalf. [3] That range of duties explains why a headcount ratio alone says little about capacity. The same number of executives can produce very different workloads.
A capacity model for a growing company
Begin with the service promised to each executive. A dedicated assignment may make sense when one leader has heavy travel, board work, external relationships, sensitive correspondence, or frequent schedule changes. Shared support can work when leaders have predictable calendars, narrower service needs, common systems, and clear priority rules.
Estimate weekly demand by service, not by title. Record calendar changes, meeting preparation, travel, expenses, correspondence, projects, and requests that require judgment. Include the full handling time and interruptions created by urgent work. Four executives needing calendar maintenance are not equivalent to four executives needing travel, board support, and project ownership.
The guide to building an executive support team covers role boundaries and team design. The scaling guide for executive support explains how support structures can change as the company grows.
Test the assignment before adding another executive
Run a four-week capacity review before expanding an assistant's assignment. Use representative weeks where possible and mark known seasonal peaks. Track request volume, handling time, backlog age, urgent interruptions, after-hours work, rework, and missed service commitments. Keep planned leave and backup duties visible.
Add one executive only with a written service scope and a review date. Compare the new period with the baseline. If backlog, errors, after-hours work, or executive self-service rises beyond the agreed limit, reduce scope or add capacity. A ratio that works only when nobody is away is not a stable operating model.
Growth can create coordination work that is absent from the formal assignment list. Hiring loops, investor meetings, leadership offsites, office moves, and new approval layers can consume capacity before another executive is added. Review the workload after organizational changes, not only when headcount crosses a threshold.
Signals that the current ratio is too high
The clearest signals are local service failures: important requests wait without an agreed reason, travel or meeting details require repeated correction, confidential work moves through unsuitable shortcuts, and routine work regularly spills outside scheduled hours. Executive work quietly returning to the leaders is another capacity signal, even if the assistant's visible queue looks manageable.
A short surge does not always justify a permanent hire. Separate recurring demand from launches, transactions, annual meetings, or leave coverage. Temporary capacity may fit a defined peak, while steady overload calls for a staffing or scope change.
How to set a starting ratio
Use one-to-one support as a scope decision, not a status benefit. Use shared support when the measured service load leaves room for predictable peaks and backup. The survey data makes one to three executives per assistant a common observed arrangement, but common does not mean optimal. [1][2]
Document who receives which services, whose requests take priority, what the assistant may decide, and who covers absence. Review the model after four weeks, then quarterly during rapid growth. Companies that need help defining a support model can contact ExecutiveSupportStaff with the current assignments and service requirements.
Limits of the evidence
Neither survey is a representative census of all executive assistants or growing companies. Both rely on self-reported assignments, and neither ties each ratio to service quality, hours, executive workload, or business outcomes. [1][2]
BLS data is based on an employer survey designed to estimate occupational employment and wages. It does not connect assistants with the executives they support. [3] The available evidence can describe common staffing patterns, but a sustainable ratio still requires local workload and service data.
Key findings
- In the 2024 ASAP survey, 42 percent of administrative professionals supported two to five people. [1]
- In the 2025 Vimcal survey, 40 percent of executive assistants supported two or three executives. [2]
- The surveys describe current assignments but do not establish an ideal ratio or a quality threshold.
- BLS counted 502,800 executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants in 2024, but that occupational total cannot produce a company staffing ratio. [3]
- Growing companies should set capacity from service scope, measured workload, surge demand, and backup coverage.
Sources
- 2024 State of the Profession Report, American Society of Administrative Professionals
- 2026 Report on the Administrative and Executive Assistant Profession, Vimcal
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics