Office in Washington: licence, certification and what employers require (2026)

Washington does not license administrative assistants: no licence. This page says what a administrative assistant licensed or working in another state has to do to work in Washington, in the order to do it, and what goes wrong when the order is reversed.

How the transfer works

Nothing is licensed; office and administrative work in Washington is hired on experience and systems.

What to have ready before you move

• References
• A list of systems you know

Start the paperwork before you give notice. There is no Washington licence to wait for, so the only clock is the employer's.

What people get wrong

• Comparing pay without comparing commute and parking costs in the metro

Who hires administrative assistants in Washington

Administrative assistants in Washington are hired by every employer type. The metros with the most of that work are Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver and Bellevue. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are on the Washington openings page.

For the money side: the median administrative assistant in Washington earned $54,560 a year ($26 an hour) in May 2024 across 34,280 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Washington has no state income tax on wages. What that leaves you after tax is its own page.

Everything about Washington, on one page

The Washington page has the registries and boards, the income tax table, the programs that pay you to come and the openings filed this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Washington employers hiring from out of state.