Paralegals earn an average of $42,387 per year, or $20.38 per hour, in the United States. Paralegals at the lower end of this spectrum, the poorest 10%, to be exact, earn about $30,000 a year, while the richest 10% earn $58,000. According to the 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), paralegals earn an average salary of $56,610 per year ($27.22 per hour). The average salary depends on the state in which you are employed, the education you have acquired and the level of experience in this field. The starting salary in an entry-level position will tend to be lower until you gain a few years of experience and prove yourself as an indispensable member of a law firm. Location influences what a legal assistant can expect. Legal assistants do their best in California, Colorado, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire. * Only paralegal programs at Herzing University in New Orleans and Atlanta are approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). The Herzing Legal Studies program offered online is not approved by the ABA. The real estate paralegal is the most paid. The real estate paralegal earned a median salary of $68,387. The top 10% earn $80,000, while the bottom 10% earn $57,000.
No, paralegals don`t make a lot of money. The average annual salary of a paralegal is only about $38,000, which gives the hourly rate around $18. The average salary depends on the state in which you work, your level of education and your experience in the field. Some places require more legal assistants than others. The annual remuneration for this career has increased since 2004. Wages increased by an average of 34.78% nationwide during this period. A legal assistant, also known as a paralegal, works either with individual lawyers in a law firm or with legal teams. He or she assists lawyers with their case numbers by conducting research, searching for documents and evidence, facilitating interviews, creating memos, and providing other forms of assistance before and during the trial. One of the main tasks of a legal assistant is to help lawyers prepare and prioritize evidence. A legal assistant usually has the task of .
Personal legal assistants earn an average of $32,522 per year. This salary varies depending on the location, field of activity, employer and level of experience. Personal legal assistants are responsible for assisting one or more persons from a law firm or in-house legal team in all aspects of their professional life. Yes, being a legal assistant is a good job. If you are looking for a permanent day job, being a legal assistant is a good choice. If you decide to become a legal assistant, enroll in a career in a rapidly evolving field where your talents and valuable ethics could be the key factor in your success. The darkest areas on the map show where paralegals earn the highest salaries in all 50 states. Learn more about what a paralegal does, including details about where paralegals usually work and the most common types of paralegal jobs.
Paralegals may want to avoid working in the government industry because it offers the lowest average salary of $42,431. In 2021, the Social Security Administration hired most of the employees entitled Legal Assistance with an average salary of $60,831. The BLS predicts that the demand for paralegals and paralegals will increase by 12% from 2020 to 2030, which means it`s the right time to get your foot in the door. Paralegals and paralegals tend to do their best in the following areas: BLS attributes the expected increase to law firms` efforts to increase efficiency and keep costs as low as possible. Paralegals and paralegals are expected to take on more of the tasks previously assigned to a legal secretary or junior lawyer. No, a legal assistant is not the same as a paralegal, although these are very similar jobs. While the job of a legal assistant is more administrative, a paralegal collects information for litigation. Herzing University exists to help you take the plunge and become possible. If you`re ready to go back to school and become a paralegal, consider our online paralegal program or our ABA-approved paralegal programs in New Orleans and Atlanta*.
Graduates are eligible to take the Certified Paralegal exam offered by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) and obtain their certification as a paralegal. You know if you will be paid fairly as a legal assistant if your salary is close to the average salary of the state in which you live. For example, if you live in California, you should be paid nearly $50,391 a year. How much does a legal assistant earn in the United States? The average salary for paralegals in the United States is $51,294, but the salary range is typically between $44,433 and $59,261. Salary ranges can vary greatly depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession. With more real-time online compensation data than any other website, Salary.com helps you determine your exact compensation goal. The salaries of paralegals may vary by industry. In fact, our data shows that the professional, financial and manufacturing industries tend to offer much higher salaries to paralegals. For example, paralegals earn a whopping average salary of $47,979 while working in the professional industry. Meanwhile, others in this field earn $44,375 in the financial industry and $43,063 in the manufacturing industry. In 2004, the average salary of a paralegal was $41,404.
Since then, the average salary has risen to $59,445 in 2021. The average payment for a legal assistant is $59,444.73. The highest-paid legal assistant earned $121,048 in 2021. A good starting salary for a legal assistant in the United States is $30,000. This puts you in the 10th percentile of a legal assistant`s annual income in the U.S., which is pretty much what you`d expect if you were new to the field. The average salary for paralegals is $41,384, but this usually requires some level of experience to achieve this.