A new generation of “power PAs”, often better qualified than their bosses, are earning salaries of up to £100,000 a year and enjoying management-style perks such as company cars.

Research from the jobs website Gumtree.com indicates that almost a quarter of these multiskilled secretaries speak at least one foreign language and a similar proportion have a postgraduate degree. In addition, more and more executive secretaries can boast of having the problem-solving skills that many directors still lack.

Not surprisingly, employers are digging deep to retain such talent. Company benefits are now standard for about a third of PAs, and the perks are growing in value and status.

A small but growing number of top PAs receive annual bonuses, gym membership, regular trips abroad, clothing allowances and company cars as part of their employment package.

The research, based on interviews with 550 office professionals, suggests that, far from occupying the bottom rung on the corporate ladder, some PAs have become “the new powerhouses of big business”. Three quarters of respondents say that they are privy to confidential information about proposed mergers or acquisitions before other staff, and one PA in five says that when it comes to office affairs and scandals, she is the best-informed person in the company.

Working relationships between “power PAs” and their bosses are healthy, Gumtree says. Three quarters of respondents claim to have an excellent relationship with the boss. Just 2 per cent of PAs say that they are regularly expected to purchase their boss’s underwear.

“The new breed of PA needs more than an attractive demeanour and great shorthand,” says Gumtree’s head of communications, Sophy Silver. “They should ‘think outside the box’ and look to earn qualifications in presentation training or web design to help to propel them into the premier league of the power PA.”

Norwegian-born Linn Hesthag, 30, is executive assistant to the vice-president, HR, at the IT and communications firm Cisco. She believes that many of her roles are now as complex as those of her boss.

“People still tend to underestimate us,” she says. “Many of us are now genuine business partners who, together with our bosses, shape the business as a whole. We are routinely asked who to hire and fire – and, because we have our ear to the ground, we know what’s going on in the organisation as a whole. We are invariably the first to hear things on the internal grapevine.”

“We are expected to be approachable and flexible multitaskers. In return, we can expect far better pay and executive-style perks.”

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