Paralegal Salary Data From The BLS
Paralegal Salary By State
Where Paralegal Pay Sits Nationally
Annual pay in May 2025. Half of paralegals and legal assistants earned between $50,340 and $80,080.
The bar runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile; the solid band is the middle half. BLS
Paralegal Pay At A Glance
- Paralegals and legal assistants earned a median $62,890 in May 2025. The middle half earned between $50,340 and $80,080.
- District of Columbia pays the highest median, $89,750, and Mississippi the lowest, $46,180.
- California, Florida, New York, Texas employ the most paralegals.
- Of the five industries the Occupational Outlook Handbook lists, the federal government pays the highest median, $81,470. Legal services, where most paralegals work, pays $61,770.
- College Scorecard reports a median for each school's certificate graduates in legal support services a year after finishing. The median of those school-level medians is $40,429, across 41 schools.
- BLS projects little or no change in paralegal employment from 2025 to 2035, with about 40,800 openings a year, mostly to replace people leaving the job.
Every wage on this page is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release, for the occupation BLS calls Paralegals and Legal Assistants (SOC 23-2011): it treats the two job titles as one. The figures are what employers reported paying, so they include every paralegal, new or senior, certified or not. They aren't adjusted for living costs, and no federal source breaks them down by certification, education or practice area. If you are weighing certification, the NALA Certified Paralegal and NFPA PACE and PCCE pages set out who can sit for each exam and what it costs, and the national exams are compared in one table.
What Paralegals Earn Nationally
The median paralegal earned $62,890 a year in May 2025, and the mean was $69,700. The mean sits higher because the best-paid pull it up. A quarter earned less than $50,340, and a quarter more than $80,080. At the ends of the range, the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $44,740 and the highest-paid 10% more than $101,500. BLS counted 392,880 paralegals and legal assistants in its wage survey.
| 10th percentile | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $44,740 | $50,340 | $62,890 | $80,080 | $101,500 |
Paralegal Salary In Every State
19 of the 51 states and districts BLS reports pay paralegals more than the national median. District of Columbia leads at $89,750, followed by Washington at $79,400. Mississippi is lowest at $46,180. Where a state has a page of its own, its name links to it, with that state's programs ranked and its rules for paralegals. The table holds the 25 highest-paying; the rest of the order opens below it.
Four states have a page with pay in every metro area and what their ranked certificates cost: paralegal salary in New York, paralegal salary in California, paralegal salary in Texas and paralegal salary in Florida.
In the Range column, each bar runs from a state's 10th to its 90th percentile on one scale, $30,000 to $140,000, and the dot marks its median.
| State | Median | 10th percentile | Range | 90th percentile | Paralegals employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1District of Columbia | $89,750 | $59,770 | $131,650 | 6,400 | |
| 2Washington | $79,400 | $50,470 | $116,750 | 9,460 | |
| 3Colorado | $78,190 | $56,930 | $106,160 | 5,620 | |
| 4Massachusetts | $77,640 | $49,770 | $117,480 | 7,800 | |
| 5California | $77,390 | $50,460 | $119,580 | 47,130 | |
| 6Minnesota | $75,570 | $47,730 | $102,920 | 7,400 | |
| 7New Jersey | $71,500 | $47,070 | $99,900 | 12,010 | |
| 8Alaska | $68,700 | $53,830 | $99,320 | 570 | |
| 9New York | $68,410 | $48,330 | $115,720 | 34,220 | |
| 10Vermont | $67,160 | $48,650 | $87,390 | 660 | |
| 11Maryland | $65,640 | $48,260 | $108,380 | 6,460 | |
| 12Nevada | $64,680 | $47,640 | $82,160 | 3,620 | |
| 13Virginia | $63,990 | $47,860 | $100,550 | 10,250 | |
| 14Connecticut | $63,820 | $46,440 | $100,040 | 5,210 | |
| 15Illinois | $63,670 | $46,860 | $104,580 | 14,130 | |
| 16Pennsylvania | $63,370 | $45,710 | $96,080 | 14,670 | |
| 17Nebraska | $63,250 | $44,230 | $86,990 | 1,630 | |
| 18Utah | $63,220 | $43,930 | $100,510 | 3,250 | |
| 19Delaware | $63,110 | $48,880 | $99,390 | 2,480 | |
| 20Hawaii | $62,840 | $47,010 | $85,440 | 1,170 | |
| 21Maine | $62,420 | $48,260 | $80,550 | 1,210 | |
| 22Georgia | $62,400 | $39,530 | $101,210 | 14,160 | |
| 23Texas | $62,310 | $39,190 | $98,440 | 29,540 | |
| 24Michigan | $62,170 | $46,590 | $96,610 | 7,730 | |
| 25New Hampshire | $62,040 | $46,870 | $86,190 | 1,430 |
Show all 51 states and districtsShow fewer
| State | Median | 10th percentile | Range | 90th percentile | Paralegals employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26Arizona | $61,630 | $45,700 | $96,340 | 7,890 | |
| 27Oregon | $61,490 | $48,250 | $98,640 | 4,870 | |
| 28Missouri | $61,410 | $42,150 | $96,820 | 7,130 | |
| 29Florida | $61,000 | $38,830 | $83,410 | 40,950 | |
| 30Ohio | $60,420 | $41,720 | $94,660 | 9,270 | |
| 31Louisiana | $60,250 | $36,960 | $78,230 | 4,890 | |
| 32New Mexico | $59,840 | $43,660 | $80,490 | 1,740 | |
| 33Kentucky | $59,830 | $36,560 | $78,730 | 3,540 | |
| 34North Dakota | $59,430 | $45,300 | $78,430 | 730 | |
| 35West Virginia | $59,000 | $35,770 | $107,310 | 1,660 | |
| 36Tennessee | $58,820 | $43,570 | $83,100 | 6,080 | |
| 37Wisconsin | $58,500 | $45,220 | $86,210 | 4,780 | |
| 38South Dakota | $58,320 | $48,890 | $84,090 | 600 |
| State | Median | 10th percentile | Range | 90th percentile | Paralegals employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39North Carolina | $57,500 | $38,570 | $84,410 | 13,650 | |
| 40Montana | $57,290 | $46,140 | $76,660 | 1,010 | |
| 41Indiana | $57,030 | $40,650 | $92,160 | 5,910 | |
| 42Rhode Island | $56,250 | $43,370 | $79,650 | 2,070 | |
| 43Kansas | $55,000 | $38,860 | $79,090 | 2,210 | |
| 44Iowa | $54,550 | $37,900 | $83,520 | 2,980 | |
| 45South Carolina | $53,880 | $38,020 | $75,640 | 7,420 | |
| 46Oklahoma | $53,170 | $36,020 | $82,060 | 3,110 | |
| 47Idaho | $49,690 | $36,930 | $75,420 | 2,030 | |
| 48Wyoming | $49,490 | $35,890 | $64,780 | 600 | |
| 49Arkansas | $47,420 | $36,290 | $81,700 | 1,610 | |
| 50Alabama | $47,260 | $30,750 | $77,100 | 5,700 | |
| 51Mississippi | $46,180 | $35,660 | $67,960 | 2,270 |
Paralegal Pay By Industry
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook breaks the May 2025 median down for five of the largest employers of paralegals. Legal services, the law firms that employ 75% of paralegals, pays $61,770, $1,120 below the national median. Federal government, finance and insurance and local government pay more, and state government pays less. Where paralegals work has those five with their shares of the jobs, and the wage survey's finer industries with their means and medians.
Paralegals Against Other Legal Support Jobs
From the same release: legal secretaries and administrative assistants earned a median $55,570, title examiners, abstractors and searchers $58,650, judicial law clerks $64,920, and the catch-all BLS calls legal support workers, all other, $72,110. Paralegals sit $7,320 above legal secretaries at the median. Paralegal vs. legal assistant sets the two jobs side by side, task by task.
What New Graduates Earn
College Scorecard reports what graduates earn a year after finishing, by school and credential, for the federal field that holds paralegal programs (22.03, Legal Support Services, which also includes legal administrative assistant programs). Each figure below is the median of school-level medians: the median of the medians that Scorecard reports for each school's graduates. For certificates that is $40,429 across 41 schools, for associate's degrees $37,551 across 74 schools and for bachelor's degrees $36,524 across 31 schools.
Read those with care. They count only graduates who received federal student aid and were working, they're first-year figures rather than career ones, and the groups differ in who enrolls, so the gap between credentials says little about what any one of them adds.
What Is The Job Outlook For Paralegals?
BLS counted 404,900 paralegal and legal assistant jobs in 2025 in its employment projections, a different count from the wage survey above, and projects little or no change through 2035, a decline of about 1,100 jobs, against 3% growth for all occupations. It names artificial intelligence and other technology among the reasons. Openings are steadier than that suggests: about 40,800 a year, mostly from people retiring or changing jobs. BLS lists an associate's degree as the typical entry-level education.
Common Questions About Paralegal Pay
How much do paralegals make?
Which state has the highest paralegal salary?
Can a paralegal make $100,000?
What type of paralegal makes the most money?
Do certified paralegals earn more?
Sources For Paralegal Salary Figures
- BLS OEWS May 2025
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, page last modified August 27, 2026
- College Scorecard: earnings one year out
Wages by state and nationally are BLS's OEWS figures. Industry pay, projections, openings and entry-level education come from the Occupational Outlook Handbook's page for paralegals and legal assistants.