The paralegal salary-survey names this page covers are BLS, NALA, NFPA and Robert Half — and of the four, our research could verify one set of figures end to end: BLS's, a national median of $62,890 for paralegals and legal assistants in May 2025.
NALA's survey page returned "Page not found" when we checked, and we verified no current NFPA or Robert Half figures.
Here is what we could check, what we could not, and how to put the checkable numbers to work.
The main paralegal salary surveys
Four names account for the paralegal salary-survey searches this page covers: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), NALA, NFPA and Robert Half.
Only one of the four could our research check end to end — the BLS, the federal statistical program whose OEWS series this page quotes.
NALA's survey is the one we could not reach, and for NFPA and Robert Half we verified no figures at all.
The one with figures you can check end to end is BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program.
Its latest release when we checked carried a May 2025 reference period, and for this occupation it publishes a national median of $62,890 a year ($30.24 an hour), a spread from $44,740 at the 10th percentile to $101,500 at the 90th, and employment of 392,880 — a count that leaves out the self-employed.
The rest need caution.
When our research checked NALA's survey page in October 2026, it returned "Page not found," which leaves the edition, year and figures of NALA's utilization and compensation survey unverified.
Our research for this page also found no NFPA or Robert Half paralegal pay figure we could verify in a primary source, so this page quotes none.
That is the answer to "which are reliable" in one line: BLS is the one publisher whose reference period and figures our research could verify end to end, so it is the number you can put in front of an employer as written.
For NALA, NFPA or Robert Half, get the current publication from the publisher first — then cite it.
What each salary survey measures
OEWS publishes wages for one occupation at a time: medians, percentiles and employment counts for the nation, medians for each state, and the same series cut by industry.
The occupation is one combined series — paralegals and legal assistants together, SOC 23-2011 — so the program cannot split paralegal pay from legal assistant pay, and it leaves out the self-employed.
A median is the midpoint of the series: half the workers it covers earn less, half earn more.
The percentiles mark the spread — 10% of the covered workers earn below the 10th-percentile figure of $44,740, and 10% earn above the 90th-percentile figure of $101,500.
Cut the same series by industry and the numbers separate:
| Paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011), BLS OEWS May 2025 | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| National, all industries | $62,890 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises (corporate offices) | $94,570 |
| Federal government, excluding postal service | $81,470 |
| Finance and insurance | $80,120 |
| Local government, excluding education and hospitals | $63,370 |
| Legal services (the industry law firms sit in) | $61,770 |
| State government, excluding education and hospitals | $59,320 |
Two reads matter for firm-side readers.
Legal services is where the jobs are — 75% of paralegal and legal assistant jobs were in legal services in 2025 — and its median, $61,770, sits below the occupation-wide $62,890.
And the corporate-offices row is an industry cut, not an in-house legal department series: it covers every paralegal and legal assistant BLS counted in that industry, at every level, not a seat like yours.
NALA's survey is named for two subjects — how paralegals are utilized and what they are compensated — but with the current edition unverified, this page will not characterize what it reports.
Ask NALA which edition is current, when it was fielded and who was surveyed before you repeat any figure from it.
The same three questions size up any publisher's pay data — NFPA's survey and the Robert Half salary guide included: which edition is current, who was surveyed and how many, and whether the number is a median or an average, base salary or total compensation.
Our research verified no current figures from either, so the answers have to come from the publisher.
Limitations of paralegal salary surveys
The combined series is the first limit.
BLS counts paralegals and legal assistants as one occupation, so no OEWS figure can tell you whether paralegals out-earn legal assistants — and the titles do not map cleanly onto the data anyway: NALA treats "legal assistant" and "paralegal" as synonymous, while firms often use "legal assistant" for a secretarial role, so usage varies employer by employer.
The second is coverage.
The self-employed are excluded, so an independent or freelance paralegal's pay is invisible to the series.
The series has no split by certification either.
And there is no percentile table to cite for the specialty seats: our pay research treats specialty paralegals as proxies under the combined occupation, and support titles such as intake, docketing, case manager, eDiscovery and litigation support have no clean SOC match in the data.
The third is precision.
An industry median covers every paralegal and legal assistant the BLS counted in that industry — every level, every city — so it describes a market, not a seat.
State medians span a wide range of the same series: DC was highest at $89,750, with Washington at $79,400 and Colorado at $78,190, and Mississippi lowest at $46,180.
The state-by-state paralegal salary data puts the number for your state next to the national one.
And then there is what no source we checked provides.
Our research found no primary-source figure for a typical annual raise percentage for paralegals, and no primary-source paralegal billing-rate benchmarks, billable-hour targets or staff bonus ranges.
NALA's current survey edition and figures are unverified, and no current NFPA or Robert Half paralegal pay figure was verified either.
Treat any number you see in those categories as unverified until its publisher shows you the source.
Survey figures are snapshots
Using salary surveys to negotiate pay
Cite the figure precisely — series, statistic, date — because precision is what makes a number usable in the conversation.
"The BLS OEWS May 2025 median for paralegals and legal assistants is $62,890" hands the other side something they can check.
"I saw a number online" hands them nothing.
Then pick the cut that matches the seat.
Employer type splits the series — $94,570 in corporate offices, $81,470 in federal government, $80,120 in finance and insurance, against $61,770 in legal services — and the state medians run from $46,180 in Mississippi to $89,750 in DC.
Match the row to the employer and state in front of you, not to the headline number.
Verify before you cite.
With NALA's current edition unverified and no verified NFPA or Robert Half figure in hand, a survey-branded number you cannot source is a liability in a negotiation, not an asset — an employer who checks it and finds nothing costs you credibility on the figures you could have sourced.
Finally, anchor the ask to the market data and the scope of the role rather than to a raise percentage: our research found no primary-source figure for a typical annual paralegal raise, so any "paralegals get X% a year" claim is unverified, and a counter built on one is easy to knock down.
The conversation itself — when to counter, what else in the package is movable, and the word-for-word scripts — is the negotiating pay guide.
This page supplies the numbers that guide anchors on.
Career information, not legal advice. The figures here are BLS OEWS May 2025 medians and percentiles for paralegals and legal assistants (SOC 23-2011); NALA's current survey could not be verified and no NFPA or Robert Half figure was verified in our research. Confirm the current edition of any survey with its publisher before you rely on it.