Lawyer Salary Calculator

1. Choose annual salary or hourly rate, then enter your gross pay before tax.
2. Set your hours per week and paid weeks per year. Blank fields count as 40 hours and 52 weeks, the 2,080-hour year that BLS uses.
3. Add a second offer in the same pay type to compare it. Read the band, the approximate percentile and the gap to the median.

The lawyer salary calculator is a tool that places an attorney's pay on the national BLS wage scale and converts it across pay periods. It answers one question: how does this figure compare with employed lawyers across the country?

BLS files lawyers under SOC code 23-1011. Lawyers advise and represent clients in criminal and civil proceedings and in other legal matters. They research and analyze legal issues, interpret laws and rulings, and prepare and file documents such as lawsuits, contracts and wills.

One limit matters more here than for most jobs. BLS states that these wage data do not cover self-employed workers or owners and partners of unincorporated businesses. Law firm partners and solo practitioners are therefore missing from the percentiles. The figures describe lawyers who are paid a wage or salary.

The tool holds no pay table by firm size, practice area or city. BLS publishes none in this series, and the page does not invent one.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates for lawyers (SOC 23-1011), May 2025, read on 2026-10-02. Employment: 754,500 wage and salary jobs. BLS publishes every figure in this table in full; none is top-coded.

Lawyer pay is spread more widely than most occupations. The 90th percentile, $351,600, is about 4.5 times the 10th percentile of $78,360. The middle half alone spans $118,380.

The mean of $185,840 sits $26,170 above the median of $159,670. A group of very high earners lifts the average, so most salaried lawyers earn less than the mean.

Industries with the Most Lawyer Jobs

The legal services industry holds 448,040 of the 754,500 surveyed jobs. That is about 59%. Local, state and federal government together hold most of the rest in this top five.

Industries with the Highest Mean Lawyer Wage

None of these five is among the largest employers of lawyers. BLS reports a relative standard error of 15.9% for automobile dealers, so that figure is less certain than the others.

The calculator converts your pay to an hourly figure, then places it between the hourly wage points BLS publishes for lawyers.

1. It finds annual pay. A salary stays as entered. An hourly rate is multiplied by your hours and weeks.
2. It divides annual pay by 12, 26 and 52 for monthly, biweekly and weekly pay.
3. It finds hourly pay. A salary is divided by the hours you work in a year.
4. It finds the two BLS hourly wage points on each side of your hourly pay. W1 and W2 are those wages, and P1 and P2 are their percentiles.
5. It estimates your percentile on a straight line between the two points, and subtracts the median to get the gap.

The comparison runs on hourly pay for a reason. BLS annual wages are hourly wages times 2,080 hours, so an hourly match treats part-time and long-hour schedules fairly.

A salary of $191,000 for 40 hours a week shows the method. It is $91.83 an hour, between the median of $76.76 and the 75th percentile of $106.43. The estimate is 50 + (91.83 - 76.76) / (106.43 - 76.76) x 25 = 62.7, so about the 63rd percentile.

Example values only. A government attorney earns $118,000 for a 40-hour week. A law firm offers $165,000, with an expected 60 hours a week.

The firm offer raises annual pay by 39.8%. On a 40-hour week it would sit at about the 52nd percentile. At the expected 60 hours it pays $52.88 an hour, which is about the 28th percentile and $3.85 less than today. Run the tool twice, once with each set of hours, to see both views.

Employer Type

BLS median pay is $178,380 in the federal government and $157,870 in legal services. It is $131,390 in local government and $115,330 in state government. The federal and state medians differ by $63,050.

State

The District of Columbia has the highest mean at $242,800, which is $56,960 above the national mean. California follows at $230,040, then New York at $220,180, Colorado at $206,440 and Massachusetts at $205,980.

Partners and Solo Lawyers

BLS says 11% of lawyers are self-employed. Their earnings are not wages and are left out of the survey, so the true spread of lawyer income is wider than the table shows.

Hours

Most lawyers work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week. A $165,000 salary is $79.33 an hour at 40 hours and $52.88 at 60 hours.

Bonuses

BLS wages exclude year-end bonuses and profit sharing. Where bonuses are a large share of pay, base salary understates the total.

Lawyers earn about 1.6 times the median for legal occupations as a group.

BLS also publishes the median by the employers with the most lawyers.

An offer with long hours can pay less per hour than a lower salary. The salary to hourly calculator runs that conversion for any job.

Lawyers typically need a law degree and a state licence, and BLS projects 5% job growth over the decade.

Becoming a lawyer usually takes 7 years of full-time study after high school: 4 years of undergraduate study and 3 years of law school. Most states require a Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school and a pass on the bar exam.

The Handbook counts 863,700 lawyer jobs, which is 109,200 more than the wage survey. The Handbook count includes the self-employed. BLS expects some routine legal work to be automated, and does not expect that to reduce overall demand for lawyers.

Comparing a Firm Offer with a Public Role

Enter each salary with its own weekly hours. The percentile follows hourly pay, so a bigger salary with a longer week can rank lower.

Checking a First Associate or Clerk Salary

The 10th and 25th percentiles, $78,360 and $102,990, mark the lower part of the salaried range across all experience levels.

Pricing Contract Legal Work

Switch to hourly to compare a contract rate with the BLS hourly wages. Self-employed lawyers also carry their own costs, which the freelancer hourly rate calculator handles.

Budgeting Against Student Debt

The monthly figure is gross, so loan payments must fit inside what is left after tax. The salary calculator splits the same salary into more pay periods.

1. Treating the Mean as a Normal Salary

The mean of $185,840 is $26,170 above the median. Most salaried lawyers earn less than the mean.

2. Expecting Partner Income in the Data

Owners and partners of unincorporated firms are not surveyed. The 90th percentile of $351,600 describes employees only.

3. Comparing Salaries Without Hours

A higher salary over 60-hour weeks can be a lower hourly rate. Enter the hours you expect to work.

4. Adding the Bonus to Base Pay

BLS excludes year-end bonuses. Enter base salary for a fair match.

5. Reading the Top Industry List as a Career Map

Automobile dealers top the mean-wage list, yet they are not among the largest employers of lawyers, and the estimate has a 15.9% relative standard error.

6. Applying National Figures to One City

The national mean is $185,840, and the District of Columbia mean is $242,800. BLS area data is the next step for a local view.

The conversions are exact arithmetic on your numbers. The percentile is an estimate, because BLS publishes five wage points and not the full curve.

This is an estimate built on BLS survey data. It is not a pay offer, and it is not career or financial advice. Every figure is gross, and this page does not estimate tax. The guide to gross vs net income explains what comes off before take-home pay.

The BLS median for lawyers was $159,670 a year in May 2025, or $76.76 an hour. Half of salaried lawyers earned less.

The 90th percentile is $351,600 a year. BLS publishes this figure in full, with no higher point. Partner earnings are not part of the survey.

The 10th percentile is $78,360 a year and the 25th is $102,990. BLS does not publish pay by years of experience.

It depends on the level of government. BLS medians are $178,380 for federal lawyers, $157,870 in legal services, $131,390 in local government and $115,330 in state government.

By BLS annual mean wage, the District of Columbia leads at $242,800, followed by California at $230,040 and New York at $220,180.

No. BLS states that the wage data do not cover self-employed workers or owners and partners of unincorporated businesses.

On a 40-hour week it sits at about the 32nd percentile nationally, $41,670 a year under the median. It is above the state government median of $115,330.

Divide the salary by your yearly hours. $159,670 over 2,080 hours is $76.76. Over 60-hour weeks the same salary is $51.18 an hour.

No. It converts pay you already know. It holds no billing rates, realization rates or fee data, because no official source publishes them.

BLS says it usually takes 7 years of full-time study after high school: 4 years of undergraduate study and 3 years of law school.

• BLS OEWS Profiles: Lawyers (SOC 23-1011) (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; May 2025 national employment, mean wage and percentile wages. Choose May 2025, then the occupation. Read 2026-10-02.)
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: Lawyers (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; duties, entry education, median pay and the 2025 to 2035 outlook. Read 2026-10-02.)
• OEWS Frequently Asked Questions (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; what counts as wages, who is surveyed, and the 2,080-hour year.)
• OEWS Data Tables (US Bureau of Labor Statistics; the May 2025 release and earlier years. Page last modified May 15, 2026.)