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Legal salary guide 2026

A focused set of 2 widely recognized jobs in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ legal occupations group. A role inside a combined BLS occupation is labelled as combined data rather than presented as a role-only estimate. Open a direct occupation for a separately labelled 2026 trend estimate only when the post-2020 history contains at least 4 consecutive exact annual medians and the latest BLS employment estimate is at least 1,000. Take home estimates assume a single filer before state and local income taxes.

Legal occupations, BLS median pay and estimated federal take home
OccupationMedianFederal take home
Lawyer23-1011
$159,670$120,394
Paralegal23-2011
$62,890$52,720

Wages are BLS medians. Take home is an estimate calculated here from federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare; choose an occupation to calculate a specific state.