Lawyers are heavily dependent on paralegals to make their work easier and faster. Paralegals and legal assistants support lawyers by performing a variety of tasks, which can be maintaining and organizing files, or conducting legal research, or drafting documents, among others. This career path is rather promising at the moment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), there are currently over 366,200 paralegals in the United States and that number is expected to grow over the next decade.
Relying on the latest occupational data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), we looked at the average salary for “paralegals and legal assistants”, as defined by the BLS, every U.S. state, both current wages and over the last five years.
So, read on to find out what the average paralegal salary is in every state, and where they earn the most.
10 States Where Paralegal Salaries Are Highest
The national average annual wage of a paralegal is $66,460 , according to the BLS, which is only about $1,000 more than the average annual wage for all occupations, $65,470. Depending on the state, however, the average salary of a paralegal varies significantly. One common theme, however, is that paralegal wages tend to follow the relative cost of living of the state. For instance, a state with a low cost of living, like, say, Mississippi or Alabama, will likely also have lower pay for paralegals.
Below is a list of the top-10 highest-paying states for paralegals:
- California average paralegal salary: $79,210
- New York average paralegal salary: $78,850
- Washington average paralegal salary: $75,560
- Massachusetts average paralegal salary: $74,710
- Colorado average paralegal salary: $72,220
- Delaware average paralegal salary: $71,360
- Connecticut average paralegal salary: $71,140
- New Jersey average paralegal salary: $70,380
- Rhode Island average paralegal salary: $70,220
- Oregon average paralegal salary: $69,100
In California, the average salary for paralegals is close to $13,000 more than the national average, $79,210 vs. $66,460. The District of Columbia, which isn’t a state, has the highest paralegal salary, with an average of $94,290 per year. Of the 10 states where paralegals make the most money, Rhode Island has seen explosive growth. From 2018, when the average paralegal salary in Rhode Island was $50,650, it has risen by 38.6%, to where it stands now at $70,220.
10 States Where Paralegal Salaries Are Lowest
The bottom-10 states where paralegals make the least money are heavily concentrated in the U.S. South, plus states in the upper Midwest and Mountain division of the country. Mississippi, where the average paralegal salary is lowest, also has the lowest cost of living in the U.S. This connection between cost of living and wages is present across all occupations, yet the magnitude of and reason for fluctuations varies considerably.
Here’s a look at the bottom-10 states for paralegal salaries:
- Mississippi average paralegal salary: $46,620
- South Carolina average paralegal salary: $50,820
- Idaho average paralegal salary: $52,980
- Kansas average paralegal salary: $53,310
- Alabama average paralegal salary: $53,450
- Kentucky average paralegal salary: $53,910
- Louisiana average paralegal salary: $53,980
- North Dakota average paralegal salary: $55,940
- Oklahoma average paralegal salary: $56,430
- Tennessee average paralegal salary: $56,440
In every single state, the average paralegal salary has gone up in the last five years ago. Unfortunately, the rate of growth in the lowest-paying states is not good, despite it being these very states that often experience the most dramatic wage increases. In Mississippi, the five-year growth rate for paralegal salaries was a mere 5.2%. In the No. 6 worst paying state, Louisiana, paralegal salaries only grew by 6.8%.
How Much Do Paralegals Make in Each State
Below you’ll find the average annual wage for paralegals in all 50 states based on the latest data, from May 2023, according to the BLS.
The state with the biggest growth in paralegal salaries over the last five years is Rhode Island, which saw its average salary rise by 38.6%. This was followed by Arizona, where the average paralegal salary rose by 35.2%, from $48,370 in 2018, to $65,400 in 2023. Four states witnessed growth rates of over 30%, and eight states of 25% or greater.