EA, Chief of Staff, and Executive Operations salary benchmarker
Compare broad employer pay, executive-support incumbent surveys, and premium $100k-plus opportunities without turning different professions and markets into one synthetic estimate. Every result names and links its source. Free, no signup.
What this calculator does
You pick a role and the tool returns the strongest available observed comparisons for it. Chief of Staff uses exact company-stage medians. Executive Assistant separates broad employer pay, executive-support incumbent data, and premium active postings. Executive Operations uses premium postings plus clearly labeled employer-record and government occupation context. Nothing you select is stored or sent anywhere.
The tool deliberately does not average these sources. Employer wages, projected starting pay, self-reported incumbent compensation, and posted salary ranges measure different markets. Keeping them separate makes the result more useful and much easier to defend.
What each input means
- Role. Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, or Executive Operations / BizOps. Each has its own source model.
- EA title. EA, Senior EA, Executive Business Partner, Executive Personal Assistant, or EA/PA hybrid. Titles without published cell sizes or percentiles are shown as contextual means, not manufactured ranges.
- Company stage. Exact observed stages from bootstrapped through public are shown for Chief of Staff. The tool does not average Series A and B together.
- EA market. National, SF Bay Area, or NYC. No universal city or remote-work multiplier is applied.
How to read the output
Read the population label first. A P25/median/P75 result is an observed distribution when the source supports it. A single mean or median is shown as a reference point, not expanded into an invented range. Premium posting figures always carry the sample size, snapshot date, and $100k midpoint-floor warning.
Figures are annual base pay unless a card explicitly says starting pay, income, bonus-inclusive pay, or posted midpoint. Bonus and equity incidence are context, not promises about a specific employer.
Read this before you cite the number. These figures are directional, not audited. Survey communities, employer records, government occupations, recruiter starting pay, and active postings have different selection effects. Use the source link, sample, measure, and limitation printed with the result.
Where the numbers come from
Chief of Staff stage medians come from Ask a Chief of Staff 2025, checked against the Chief of Staff Network and Pave. EA comparisons use C-Suite Assistants 2026, the 2025 U.S. Administrative Professionals Salary Report, BLS May 2025, and Robert Half 2026. Premium comparisons come from the Exec Ops Brief active roles dataset.
Questions people ask
What is a typical Chief of Staff salary?
There isn't a single typical number, which is the whole problem with the question. Company stage moves it more than anything else: survey medians run near the low $100ks at seed and near $200k at Series C and beyond. Aggregators like Glassdoor and Payscale publish national averages in the $200k range, but those skew toward large, well-funded tech employers. Run the calculator with your actual stage and market before you use any headline figure.
Does a Chief of Staff get a bonus?
Not always. In a small Chief of Staff Collective survey, 56 percent received a bonus and recipients averaged 19 percent of base. That is useful context, not a universal entitlement or role-wide target.
How much equity does a Chief of Staff get?
There is no defensible universal grant band for this tool. What matters is the share count, fully diluted ownership, strike price, latest 409A/common value, vesting, dilution, preferences, exercise window, and liquidity. The offer evaluator checks whether you have enough information to discuss the grant responsibly.
Why are broad and premium salaries shown separately?
The premium board only includes active postings with a published midpoint of at least $100,000 and is concentrated in NYC and the Bay Area. It is a useful opportunity-market signal, but statistically it cannot be presented as a national incumbent median.
Can I use this to negotiate?
Use it to anchor, not to cite. Walk in with a range you can defend for your specific stage and scope, then verify the number against the linked sources before you put it in an email. Then read how to negotiate a Chief of Staff offer, which treats the role and the money as two separate conversations.
Keep going
The salary guide has the full company-stage pay table, leveling context, and every source. The offer evaluator compares base, guaranteed cash, target cash, equity information, and terms separately.