Lawyer Salaries: What Attorneys Earn by State

The legal profession is one of the highest-compensated in the United States. BLS OEWS data for lawyers covers attorneys across all practice settings — BigLaw firms, government agencies, in-house corporate counsel, nonprofits, and solo practitioners.

Wide Variance in Earnings

Few occupations show as wide a salary distribution as law. The gap between a first-year associate at a large New York firm and a public defender or rural solo practitioner can exceed $200,000 annually. The BLS median figure captures the middle of this entire distribution — which includes many lower-paid government and nonprofit attorneys alongside high-earning partners.

Highest-Paying States for Lawyers

Washington D.C. consistently reports the highest median lawyer wages in the country, followed by California and New York — the three jurisdictions with the densest concentration of large law firms and federal legal work.

Top Markets

The New York metro, Washington D.C. metro, and San Francisco Bay Area are the three markets with the highest median lawyer wages nationally.

Legal Occupations Overview

Browse the full Legal Occupations group for wages on paralegals, legal assistants, court reporters, and other legal roles.