Pay · 43-6012
Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants earn $55,570 a year at the midpoint
The middle of the pay scale for legal secretaries and administrative assistants is $55,570. A typical start is nearer $44,450; the top tenth earn about $91,730.
National figures for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, 43-6012, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Legal secretary earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
The survey has no complete figures for that job — pick the closest title from the list.
An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →
Examples
Resumes written for this line of work.
Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.
- Legal Secretary Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Executive Assistant Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Medical Secretary Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Administrative Assistant Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Weigher and Checker Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Shipping and Receiving Clerk Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Production Planner Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Mail Sorter Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Mail Carrier Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Postal Clerk Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Meter Reader Resume Template Office & Administrative
- Dispatcher Resume Template Office & Administrative
No. 457 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 42% of the occupations in the survey.
- 455 Mechanical Door Repairers $55,720
- 456 Tile and Stone Setters $55,690
- 457 Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants $55,570
- 458 Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators $55,490
- 459 Roofers $55,440
Legal secretary wages across the states
The 41 states where the most people do this work, of 50 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.71 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | $99,280 | $60,680 | $60,680 — $123,060 | 1,940 |
| New York | $72,230 | $42,340 | $42,340 — $107,780 | 9,800 |
| Connecticut | $66,220 | $51,670 | $51,670 — $93,930 | 1,090 |
| Delaware | $66,130 | $43,960 | $43,960 — $91,310 | 980 |
| Minnesota | $63,180 | $45,750 | $45,750 — $93,290 | 2,410 |
| New Jersey | $63,080 | $41,900 | $41,900 — $89,010 | 4,160 |
| California | $62,860 | $40,710 | $40,710 — $106,580 | 27,470 |
| Massachusetts | $62,120 | $42,220 | $42,220 — $100,430 | 4,020 |
| Maryland | $61,440 | $45,940 | $45,940 — $84,390 | 1,670 |
| Oregon | $59,610 | $40,490 | $40,490 — $95,260 | 1,590 |
| Colorado | $59,490 | $44,060 | $44,060 — $103,200 | 2,030 |
| Washington | $58,360 | $45,140 | $45,140 — $93,600 | 3,950 |
| New Mexico | $57,800 | $41,060 | $41,060 — $71,800 | 1,400 |
| Michigan | $56,870 | $36,860 | $36,860 — $78,510 | 3,580 |
| Nevada | $56,470 | $37,330 | $37,330 — $75,630 | 1,430 |
| Wisconsin | $55,410 | $46,020 | $46,020 — $75,860 | 1,210 |
| Virginia | $55,320 | $33,750 | $33,750 — $89,320 | 2,380 |
| Arizona | $55,120 | $41,410 | $41,410 — $78,470 | 2,600 |
| Utah | $52,860 | $36,090 | $36,090 — $80,510 | 940 |
| South Carolina | $52,840 | $34,190 | $34,190 — $67,740 | 2,280 |
| Illinois | $52,790 | $41,600 | $41,600 — $99,470 | 8,030 |
| Pennsylvania | $51,430 | $35,900 | $35,900 — $77,420 | 6,230 |
| Ohio | $51,080 | $34,270 | $34,270 — $76,410 | 4,360 |
| Hawaii | $49,460 | $48,310 | $48,310 — $75,080 | 680 |
| Florida | $48,510 | $34,420 | $34,420 — $81,340 | 10,920 |
| Georgia | $48,460 | $35,650 | $35,650 — $72,030 | 3,260 |
| Louisiana | $48,050 | $33,360 | $33,360 — $77,920 | 2,460 |
| Maine | $48,040 | $35,070 | $35,070 — $63,120 | 860 |
| Indiana | $47,740 | $36,920 | $36,920 — $77,450 | 2,670 |
| West Virginia | $46,960 | $27,990 | $27,990 — $60,590 | 1,200 |
| Iowa | $46,590 | $35,730 | $35,730 — $64,330 | 1,120 |
| Alabama | $45,950 | $29,290 | $29,290 — $67,340 | 1,840 |
| Oklahoma | $45,950 | $31,580 | $31,580 — $60,800 | 1,290 |
| Texas | $45,940 | $39,480 | $39,480 — $82,680 | 13,380 |
| Nebraska | $45,800 | $29,640 | $29,640 — $64,860 | 1,310 |
| Tennessee | $45,340 | $30,850 | $30,850 — $71,330 | 2,980 |
| Mississippi | $45,140 | $24,410 | $24,410 — $63,160 | 820 |
| North Carolina | $43,720 | $31,190 | $31,190 — $71,640 | 3,780 |
| Kentucky | $39,300 | $29,580 | $29,580 — $61,500 | 2,810 |
| Missouri | $38,560 | $31,090 | $31,090 — $76,640 | 3,310 |
| Kansas | $36,620 | $30,520 | $30,520 — $56,380 | 1,600 |
No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.
Legal secretary pay rate, hourly to yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
A resume for legal secretaries and administrative assistants
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Organized and maintained law libraries, documents, and case files.
- Mailed, faxed, or arranged for delivery of legal correspondence to clients, witnesses, and court officials.
- Prepared and distributed invoices to bill clients or pay account expenses.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Questions people ask
What is a legal secretary’s yearly income?
A legal secretary makes a median of $55,570 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $44,450 and $71,970.
What is a legal secretary’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $26.72 an hour; the average is $60,620 a year.
What is the starting pay for a legal secretary?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $44,450 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $36,500.
Which state pays legal secretaries and administrative assistants the most?
District of Columbia, with a median of $99,280 a year.
How many people work as legal secretaries and administrative assistants?
About 156,280 in the United States — number 457 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Jobs that pay about the same
Median pay within $150 of what legal secretaries and administrative assistants earn — $55,570 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $80 less Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators $55,490median a year 10th percentile: $31,630 90th percentile: $144,210
- $130 less Roofers $55,440median a year 10th percentile: $37,460 90th percentile: $81,720
- $150 more Mechanical Door Repairers $55,720median a year 10th percentile: $38,490 90th percentile: $78,260