Civil Service Administrative Officer pay

An Administrative Officer (AO) in the Ministry of Defence is paid a single rate of £27,650 a year, the same as an administrative assistant, on the scale in force from 1 August 2025. Other departments set their own AO pay, and at this grade many pay one fixed rate with no range. The grade sits close to the legal wage floor, which shapes how AO pay moves.

What two departments publish

The MOD lists a minimum and maximum for each grade of its core civilian staff. For AO and AA both are £27,650, with a note that these grades received an uplift in April 2025 to comply with National Living Wage law. The page does not give London rates or allowances.

The Serious Fraud Office answered a Freedom of Information request (reference 2026-035) with its own scale. It lists an AO spot rate of £24,409 for its 2025 pay year and says it works out pay on 36 net hour contracts. The SFO and the MOD are both civil service employers, and their AO rates differ by more than £3,000. Hours matter in that comparison, so check whether an advert’s hours are gross or net of lunch breaks before you compare salaries.

How close AO pay is to the minimum wage

The National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over from April 2026. On a 37 hour week for 52 weeks that is about £24,450 a year, so AO pay at £27,650 is about £3,200 above it in the MOD. The Cabinet Office pay remit guidance for 2026/27 tells departments to apply the legislated increase each April and says the cost of lifting staff to the new rate can fall outside the department’s pay remit.

The same guidance describes a voluntary Pay Compression Framework for AA to EO grades, because rises in the legal minimum have squeezed the gaps between grades. A department that uses it has to show its compression problems and set out workforce plans for AAs, including clear career paths. Whether your department has signed up is something to ask about at interview.

Apprentices have lower legal minimums. The apprentice rate is £8 an hour for those under 19 or in the first year of an apprenticeship, but departments set what they actually pay, so read the advert. The Civil Service apprenticeships guide covers the routes in.

Pay awards and progression

The 2026/27 pay remit caps the increase in each department’s pay costs at 3.5%, published on 21 May 2026. It is a budget for the department, so an individual AO may get more or less, and a spot rate has no steps to climb. On a single rate your pay changes with the annual award, with an uplift to match the wage floor, or when you move to a higher grade. Departments that run a range may have time-served or performance steps, and the advert or the HR team can tell you.

What promotion adds

In the MOD the minimum for an EO is £30,740, so promotion from AO adds £3,090 at the bottom of the grade. In the same department the EO maximum is £33,730. Your department’s own gap will differ, so compare the adverts at each grade on Civil Service Jobs. The executive officer pay guide covers the next step up.

Tax and pension at AO level

On £27,650, income tax comes to about £3,016 and employee National Insurance about £1,206 a year before pension, using the 2026/27 allowance of £12,570. Civil servants are normally in the alpha pension scheme, and the member rate is 4.6% on pay up to £36,199. The alpha pension guide explains the scheme, and the take-home pay calculator gives the monthly figure.

For what the job involves day to day, see the administrative officer profile, and for how the grades fit together read Civil Service grades and pay.