Paralegal Salaries

Paralegal salaries differ depending on a lot of variables including education, training, experience, geographical location, and the type and size of your employer. If you are a freelance paralegal, then it is even more difficult to ascertain what the average salary is for your area because there are very few surveys done to gather wage information about independent or freelance paralegals.

There are four general law specialties that you can work under as a paralegal. The main four are litigation, probate, real estate, and corporate or business law. Each of these four specialties of law can be broken down even further to include sub-specialties. A law firm may specialize in one of these four general divisions of law, or one of the many sub-divisions within, such as family law or environmental law. As a paralegal, you may work for a traditional law firm, or you may choose to work with a non-profit or under a federal, state, or local government agency.

The two types of law that pay the highest paralegal salaries are litigation law and business or corporate law. Litigation and corporate law can be broken down even further to include subcategories such as bankruptcy law, insurance law, patents, securities, health care law, international law, etc. In addition to their salary, many paralegals receive bonuses and overtime pay which can result in a substantial increase in take home pay.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) a salary survey taken in May 2008 claims that the middle 50% of paralegal salaries are between $36,080 and $59,310, with the top 10% earning $73,450+ and the bottom 10% earning less than $29,260. While these numbers may be helpful to those uninitiated to the paralegal profession, it may be too general for those looking to work as a paralegal in a specific city and capacity.

To find a more specific estimate of the paralegal salaries in your area, you should consider using PayScale.com or Salary.com. Both of these websites offer a more current and potentially more accurate idea of what a paralegal can make in your area.

Payscale is an online salary database that gathers information from individuals working in specific fields. To find specific information about the paralegal salaries in the area where you live you can take a short survey about your location, education, experience, and anticipated position and PayScale will give you an estimate of what your paralegal salary will be. The survey is completely anonymous and even gives you approximations of the bonuses, benefits, and vacation time being paid by firms in the area where you are searching.

For example, using PayScale, when searching for a paralegal position in litigation law in San Francisco with only two years of experience, the highest 10% of paralegals make around $90K, including salary, bonuses, and overtime pay. This number does not reflect what BLS surveyed, perhaps because San Francisco is one of the most populated and expensive cities in the U.S., or perhaps because PayScale offers a more up-to-date estimate of paralegal salaries. Regardless, if you are looking for a comprehensive picture of what a typical paralegal salary looks like in your area, then you should do your research using as many sources as possible, including speaking to other paralegals in your area, using online salary databases, etc.

Online job databases, such as PayScale and Salary.com, give you a better estimation of paralegal salaries than the Bureau of Labor Statistics because they take location into account. For the most part, paralegals who work in large metropolitan areas in large law firms earn more than those who work in smaller towns in smaller law firms.

Freelance paralegals or independent contractors are often paid more than salaried paralegal employees. They can pull a higher wage because they generally have a lot of experience and as independent contractors they are responsible for their own expenses, such as health care, retirement, taxes, and other small business expenses. It is common for some freelance paralegals to offer their services for different cases all over the nation. The more experienced you are, then the more you will make as a freelance paralegal, but it is only with a lot of experience that you should even venture down the independent road.