SalariesLegal: pay for 8 occupations, May 2025
The field Legal had 1,305,620 jobs in the United States in May 2025, with a median pay of $102,500 a year ($49.28 an hour) across all its occupations.
No occupation in this field matches.
| Occupation | Median a year | Median an hour | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | $159,670 | $76.76 | 754,500 |
| Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates | $153,990 | $74.03 | 24,030 |
| Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers | $117,860 | $56.67 | 16,370 |
| Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators | $75,530 | $36.31 | 9,210 |
| Legal Support Workers, All Other | $72,110 | $34.67 | 46,760 |
| Judicial Law Clerks | $64,920 | $31.21 | 13,290 |
| Paralegals and Legal Assistants | $62,890 | $30.24 | 392,880 |
| Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers | $58,650 | $28.20 | 48,580 |
In short
- Highest median pay in this field: Lawyers, $159,670 a year.
- Lowest: Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers, $58,650 a year.
- Most jobs: Lawyers (754,500), Paralegals and Legal Assistants (392,880) and Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers (48,580).
- For comparison, the median for all occupations in the country was $50,980 a year.
Sorted by median pay, highest first. "Not published" in the yearly or hourly column means BLS releases only the other one for that occupation.
The field as a whole
Legal holds 1,305,620 of the 155,495,730 jobs in the national figures, about 1 in every 100. Its median pay of $102,500 a year is 2.0 times the median for all occupations ($50,980), which places it number 3 of the 22 fields. Across the whole field, the lowest-paid tenth earned less than $49,400 and the highest-paid tenth more than $287,070; the middle half earned between $64,800 and $174,620. The average was $139,510, 36% above the median.
Inside the field
Inside the field, the best-paid occupation with a published yearly median earns 2.7 times the lowest ($159,670 against $58,650). All 8 occupations with a yearly median are above the national median of $50,980. The occupation in the middle of the field's list is Legal Support Workers, All Other, at $72,110. Jobs are unevenly spread: the three largest occupations hold 92% of the field's jobs, while the smallest, Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators, has 9,210. Pay stretches furthest within Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates, where the highest-paid tenth earn over $221,710 and the lowest-paid tenth under $46,950.
Reading the field
Pay also moves with place. For the field's largest occupation, Lawyers, the state medians run from $91,690 in Mississippi to $207,860 in New York; its own page has every state. The Bureau of Labor Statistics sorts every occupation into one field by the work done, not by the industry of the employer, so an accountant at a hospital is counted under business and financial operations, not health care.
Questions about this field
What is the highest-paying job in legal?
By published median pay in May 2025: Lawyers, at $159,670 a year.
Which legal occupation has the most jobs?
Lawyers, with 754,500 jobs in the United States.
What is the median pay for legal occupations?
$102,500 a year across the whole field, against $50,980 for all occupations.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Checked in November 2026. Figures are for employees, before tax, and leave out overtime pay and benefits. They are official statistics, not advice or a pay offer; see bls.gov/oes for the original tables.