The average lawyer salary in the US is $112,000 per year. That’s an average of $8,300 per month, or $1,200 per week. It’s important to note that this number can vary depending on where you live and what type of law you practice.
In states like California and New York, lawyers tend to be paid higher salaries than other states. This is due largely to the higher cost of living in these states. In Massachusetts, for example, a starting salary for an attorney might be around $45,000 a year—but that same attorney could make over $100,000 in California or New York after only a few years’ experience.
The most common types of law practices are transactional (such as estates and trusts), litigation (such as criminal defense), corporate law (such as mergers and acquisitions), and public interest (such as legal aid). The average lawyer salary ranges from $52K for transactional attorneys to $108K for litigation attorneys (and up from there).
Lawyer Salary In Usa
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, the employment of lawyers is projected to increase by 50,100 from 2018 to 2028. That’s a substantial amount of growth for most occupations, but with the current number of lawyer jobs being 823,900, it’s only an increase of 6%, which is about as fast as the average growth for all occupations. So, it’s not exactly a career path that’s on fire, but neither is it declining.
One of the many draws of pursuing a career as a lawyer is the financial compensation; namely, it pays well. Using occupational data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we’ve analyzed and compiled an overview of the average lawyer salary by state in the U.S. Read on for a full breakdown of where lawyers make the most money, and where they’re making the least.
10 States Where Lawyers Earn the Most Money
The national average annual wage of an lawyer is $144,230, according to the BLS, which is not far from being three-times the average annual salary for all occupations, $51,960. However, that average salary is for the U.S. overall, which hides significant differences depending on geography, such as the state you reside in.
Below is a list of the top-10 highest-paying states for lawyers:
- California average lawyer salary: $171,550
- New York average lawyer salary: $167,110
- Massachusetts average lawyer salary: $165,610
- Connecticut average lawyer salary: $153,640
- Illinois average lawyer salary: $152,980
- Texas average lawyer salary: $150,250
- Colorado average lawyer salary: $147,560
- Arizona average lawyer salary: $145,750
- Virginia average lawyer salary: $139,180
- New Jersey average lawyer salary: $139,020
Massachusetts has not only the third-highest average annual wage for lawyers. It has seen the third-largest growth in its average lawyer salary over the last five years: 23.2%, from $134,380 in 2013 to $165,610 in 2018.
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10 States Where Lawyers Earn the Least Money
The bottom-10 states where lawyers make the least money tend to be ones less densely populated, and either in the South or the Mountain states of the West. Check them out below, with No. 1 being the lowest-paying state:
- Montana average lawyer salary: $88,600
- Mississippi average lawyer salary: $97,990
- West Virginia average lawyer salary: $98,630
- Arkansas average lawyer salary: $98,780
- Idaho average lawyer salary: $99,360
- Kentucky average lawyer salary: $100,100
- South Carolina average lawyer salary: $105,320
- Louisiana average lawyer salary: $105,490
- Wyoming average lawyer salary: $105,600
- New Mexico average lawyer salary: $105,910
For some of these states, the prospects for lawyers is actually looking bright, as average lawyer wages have risen by 17.6% in Montana and by 18.3% in Wyoming from 2013 to 2018. On the other hand, many of the other 10 worst states have seen declining wages for lawyers. The fifth-lowest paying state for lawyers, Idaho, has seen its average annual wage decline by 5.7% in the last five years, one of the worst rates in the country.
