What a paralegal earns, by metro

Median pay for paralegals runs from $35,790 in Southeast Alabama nonmetropolitan area to $99,250 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara — a 2.77× range across 504 metropolitan areas. The national median of $62,890 sits inside that range but describes no particular market.

What the percentile band tells you

Ten per cent of paralegals earn below $44,740 and ten per cent above $101,500 — a 2.27× band. The upside from median to 90th percentile is 61%, which is a normal amount of room for experience and specialisation to matter. An offer below the 25th percentile is worth questioning; one above the 75th is worth taking seriously.

Where the money is

6 of the ten best-paying metros for paralegals are in CA. When one state dominates the top of the table like this, cost of living is doing part of the work but rarely all of it — state licensing rules, public-sector pay scales and the presence of a few large employers usually explain the rest. If you are comparing an offer in CA against one elsewhere, adjust for housing before concluding anything.

Highest paying metros

Lowest paying metros

Where the role is most concentrated

Largest employers by metro

Current openings

About this data

Figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, May 2025 release, SOC code 23-2011. OEWS surveys employers, so it reports what is actually paid rather than what job advertisements claim, and it excludes the self-employed. Estimates cover 504 of 528 metropolitan areas — near-complete coverage, which means the ranges above are reliable rather than drawn from a handful of markets. Read the methodology.