I live in a large town near London where everything is bordering on London prices - apart from my salary! I've had to take a pay drop to secure a contract (after being made redundant 18 months ago) and as a result am left with very, very little extra income of a month. Essentially, I earn enough to keep a roof over my head and if I'm lucky I can splash out on the odd coffee. If I had a working parter then I'd obviously have disposable income, but living alone is an expensive business!

From a UK point of view the titles tend to be somewhat ambiguous, for various reasons.

To my mind a PA is the original title for an Assistant that provides 1 on 1 support. These days, with budgetary constraints leading to merging of jobs, the title of PA has become more of an umbrella title and covers everything from office admin and serving tea to line management and being a true right hand support to a top level Exec. There appear to be a number of "Team PA" roles advertised, the title of which almost seems to be an oxymron.

Executive Assistant still seems to be more of a US term but would well describe a team assistant at a higher level (i.e. "Team PA" as mentioned above). Exec Assistants also seem to undertake PA roles in American companies in the UK.

Admin Assistant would denote a lower grade support role, in terms of both duties and responsibilities, and probaby supporting a team lower than Exec. This role would definitely support more than one person.