Paralegal Salary in 2026: Pay by State, Industry and City

How Much Does a Paralegal Make?

A paralegal makes a median of $62,890 a year, or $30.24 an hour, in the May 2025 federal wage survey of 392,880 paralegals and legal assistants. Treat that as the midpoint of a wide field and not as a going rate. Half the paralegals in the country earn less than $62,890, and the half who earn more are spread across a range that reaches $101,500 at the 90th percentile.

The spread looks like this. The 10th percentile is $44,740 and the 25th is $50,340. The 75th percentile is $80,080 and the 90th is $101,500, so $56,760 separates the bottom tenth from the top tenth. Hourly, the same points run from $21.51 to $48.80, with the middle half of paralegals between $24.20 and $38.50. That is a wider spread than the median alone suggests, and most of it comes from who the employer is and where the office sits, which the next section covers.

If you're starting out, plan around the 25th percentile, $50,340, and know that the 10th percentile is $44,740. The handbook lists an associate's degree or certificate in paralegal studies as the typical entry and no work experience, so use the lower quarter as your frame until you have a record of cases to point to. An established paralegal in the management of companies sector, a federal agency or a high-paying metro can reach the 75th percentile, $80,080, and the sectors and metros posting medians above that figure are named below.

Paralegal Salary by State

Paralegal salary by state runs from a median of $89,750 in District of Columbia to $46,180 in Mississippi, across the 50 states and the District of Columbia where the survey publishes a median. A state median is a location figure: it reflects which employers are there and what living costs, not what any one employer pays.

Highest-Paying Cities for Paralegals

The highest-paying cities for paralegals are the metro areas below, the ten with the highest median among the 376 metro areas where the survey publishes one and at least 100 people hold the job. The second chart lists the ten metro areas that employ the most paralegals, which is where most of the openings are.

Paralegal Salary by Industry

Paralegal pay by industry is set out below for every industry sector where the survey publishes a median, highest first, with the number employed in each. A high median in a sector with few jobs is a real figure but a narrow door.

What Drives Paralegal Pay?

What drives paralegal pay is where the job sits: inside a law firm, inside a company, or inside a government agency. Most paralegals work in professional, scientific, and technical services, and there 310,490 of them earn a median of $61,840, just under the national figure. In management of companies and enterprises the median is $94,570 across 6,970 jobs. Finance and insurance pays $80,120 across 11,030. Information pays $87,390 across 1,730, and real estate pays $94,940 across 1,250. Wholesale trade posts $97,880 across 710 jobs and manufacturing $97,640 across 1,020, so those are figures to know about rather than a hiring pool. Health care and social assistance sits at the bottom, $57,660 across 2,340.

Government is not a uniform step up for paralegals. The federal government pays $81,470 across 16,020 jobs. Local government pays $63,410 across 19,900, close to the private median of $62,440. State government pays $59,970 across 12,660, under the private figure. Government as a whole posts $67,480, and the federal row is what lifts it. The handbook's own factor is firm size. It says that in small firms, a paralegal may work on all aspects of a case from beginning to end, a difference in the job itself and not only the pay, and it says some employers prefer a bachelor's degree while others consider a high school diploma and experience.

Then there's the map. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA pays a median of $99,250 across 2,030 paralegals, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA pays $92,900 across 6,310, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA pays $84,030 across 7,630. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria pays $81,590 across 12,990, and it's on both the top-paying and the largest-employer lists, as is San Francisco. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has the most paralegals, 33,850, at $75,330, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has 22,240 at $77,520. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, with 17,820 paralegals, pays $62,090, and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands pays $62,730, so two of the ten largest paralegal markets sit under the national median. At the state level, the District of Columbia posts $89,750, Washington $79,400 and Colorado $78,190, against $46,180 in Mississippi.

How Can a Paralegal Earn More?

A paralegal can earn more by changing the kind of employer before changing anything else. The survey's starkest contrast is between a law office and a company: professional, scientific, and technical services pays a median of $61,840 and management of companies and enterprises pays $94,570, a difference of $32,730 for the same occupation. Finance and insurance, at $80,120, is the bigger pool of higher-paying employers, with 11,030 jobs. On the government side, aim federal. The federal median is $81,470 across 16,020 jobs, while state government, at $59,970, pays under the private median of $62,440.

Location is the second lever, and for paralegals it's a large one. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue pays $92,900 across 6,310 jobs and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria pays $81,590 across 12,990, both markets big enough to move to on the strength of a job search rather than a gamble. Within a state, the metro matters too. California's median is $77,390, but San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara pays $99,250 and Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom pays $78,550.

The handbook's credential path is a gate, not a raise. It says certification isn't required but some employers prefer or require it, that the exams set eligibility rules for education and work experience, and that keeping the certification takes continuing education hours. Where an employer that pays in the upper range requires certification, the certificate is what gets you the interview. The handbook also says some employers prefer a bachelor's degree, and if you're building one, the bachelor's in general studies rankings list programs you can shape toward social science or business, the majors the handbook says paralegals with a bachelor's tend to hold.

The steps into the job, and whether a general studies degree is enough to get there, are in the paralegal career guide.