EA Retention Rates by Industry 2026

Average EA Tenure Across Major Industries

The median EA tenure in 2026 is 3.1 years, masking wide variation by industry. Financial services leads all sectors with a median tenure of 4.7 years, driven by strong compensation, clear career ladders, and a culture that values institutional knowledge. Technology follows at 3.6 years, while healthcare and life sciences average 3.4 years. Retail, hospitality, and media trail the field at 2.1-2.4 years, reflecting higher organizational churn and less defined EA career pathways.

Voluntary turnover for EAs overall reached 18.3% in 2025, a slight improvement from the 21.1% peak in 2023. The improvement correlates with broader adoption of structured onboarding, explicit career development plans, and more competitive compensation benchmarking by employers. Organizations that implemented all three measures saw voluntary turnover fall to 9.8%.

Top Drivers of Voluntary Departure

Compensation dissatisfaction remains the primary reason EAs cite when leaving voluntarily, named by 44% of departing EAs in exit interviews conducted across 2025. Relationship quality with the principal ranked second at 31%, underscoring that the EA role is highly personal and interpersonally intensive. Lack of growth opportunity was third at 24%.

Principals who held quarterly structured feedback sessions with their EAs saw voluntary turnover 28% lower than those who provided feedback only during annual reviews. The data strongly suggests that relational investment by the principal is as important as compensation in driving retention. This aligns with patterns identified in our EA onboarding checklist, which includes a structured 90-day relationship-building protocol.

Industry-Specific Retention Strategies

In financial services, the most effective retention lever is formal title progression (from EA to Senior EA to Executive Business Partner) with associated compensation step-ups. In technology, flexibility (remote and schedule) is the dominant retention factor, cited by 58% of retained EAs as their primary reason for staying. Healthcare organizations achieve retention through mission alignment and schedule predictability.

Nonprofit organizations, despite below-market compensation, retain EAs at a median tenure of 3.2 years (above the national median) by offering strong work-life integration, meaningful mission exposure, and consistent principal relationships. The data challenges the assumption that compensation alone drives retention.

Turnover Rates by Company Size

EA turnover is inversely correlated with company size up to a point. Companies with 500-5,000 employees show the lowest EA turnover at 14.1%, benefiting from structured HR support, defined roles, and institutional credibility. Companies under 100 employees show the highest turnover at 26.4%, driven by role ambiguity and compensation constraints. Enterprise companies above 10,000 employees average 17.8%, with role fragmentation and bureaucracy cited as offsetting factors.

For organizations seeking to reduce first-year turnover specifically, role clarity at the point of hire is the highest-leverage intervention. Our C-suite executive assistant service includes role-scoping as a standard part of the engagement process, reducing first-year departure risk significantly.

Key Takeaways

Retention is not primarily an HR problem: it is a principal relationship problem. Industries and organizations that invest in the EA relationship, provide clear career architecture, and benchmark compensation to live market data consistently outperform on tenure. The cost of getting this right is modest relative to the cost of turnover.

To build a retention-optimized EA engagement from day one, speak with our staffing team.