How much should a law firm pay a personal injury case manager?

Start with the honest label on the data.

BLS has no occupation code for legal case managers, so no federal series prices the seat under its own name.

The closest published occupation is Legal Support Workers, All Other (SOC 23-2099), and every figure below is that proxy, not a case-manager census.

In the OEWS May 2025 release, that occupation paid a national median of $72,110 a year ($34.67 an hour), with a 10th percentile of $43,800 and a 90th percentile of $179,960 across 46,760 workers in all industries — a count that excludes the self-employed.

Narrowed to the legal services industry, law firms (NAICS 5411), the occupation counted 10,550 workers at a median annual wage of $63,100.

For a firm's budget, the legal-services line is the better anchor: it counts legal-industry employers only.

Read the percentile columns for what they are.

The $43,800-to-$179,960 spread describes an entire occupation across every industry — legal support workers of many kinds, not case managers on a career ladder — so the 10th percentile is not entry-level pay for your seat.

Our research pulled national figures only for this occupation, so there is no state table to fall back on either.

Price your market from what is actually being offered.

The live personal injury case manager jobs on this board show the postings you are competing against, and our personal injury case manager salary data page explains why no BLS figure carries the title, with the neighboring paralegal and legal secretary occupations shown for context only.

Turning a median into a band for your market and the scope you are buying is its own exercise; our guide to benchmarking law firm pay walks it step by step.

Be skeptical of any table that claims to price a case manager's experience directly.

The OEWS table behind these figures carries no experience split, and our research found no primary-source pay ladder for the role — the percentiles above are a spread across an entire occupation, not seniority steps.

Price experience by scope instead: write down whether the hire should run a caseload with minimal day-to-day direction in month one or grow into one under closer attorney review, and let the band move with the scope you are actually buying.

The scope questions are the ones you can actually specify and price.

How much of the file does the manager own end to end without attorney hand-holding, from intake through resolution?

Will they coordinate other staff, such as intake or records clerks?

How much direct client contact does the seat absorb?

A seat that owns the file, the staff and the client relationship is a different purchase from one that supports an attorney-led team, and your band should say so.

Before you set a number, fix the job.

The duties, the legal-scope lines and the screen for this seat are hiring decisions first — our guide to how to hire a personal injury case manager covers them — and the band should price the job description you actually settle on, not a generic title.

Firm size works on your side of the ledger rather than the candidate's: our research found no sourced firm-size pay curve for this role.

The wage is one line — payroll taxes, benefits and the tools the seat needs are others — so total the cost on your own books instead of applying anyone's ready-made multiplier.

Settle the base first, and settle it as a classification decision rather than a habit.

The exemption analysis for this seat has no shortcut: the paralegal rule, 29 CFR 541.301(e)(7), says paralegals and legal assistants generally do not qualify as exempt learned professionals because an advanced specialized academic degree is not a standard prerequisite for the field — and a case manager is a different job title.

DOL's guidance is explicit that job titles do not determine exemption status: the duties and salary the seat actually carries decide it.

Confirm each hire's classification with employment counsel before the first payroll runs.

If you do classify the hire as exempt, the federal salary floor for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 per week — $35,568 a year — the level DOL enforced as of October 2026, and state floors can sit higher, as the pay-review section below shows.

If you pay hourly instead, overtime budgeting is part of the structure from day one.

The full analysis for firm staff, starting from the paralegal rule, is in our guide to overtime rules and our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt law firm staff.

Incentives are where pay structure meets the ethics rules.

ABA Model Rule 5.4(a) bars a lawyer or law firm from sharing legal fees with a nonlawyer, subject to listed exceptions.

One of those exceptions, 5.4(a)(3), lets a firm include nonlawyer employees in a compensation or retirement plan even though it is based in whole or in part on profit-sharing.

That is the lane: pay for work and for the firm's success, not a cut of a case.

A bonus pool keyed to firm-wide or department profitability is the profit-sharing plan 5.4(a)(3)'s own text describes; milestone bonuses for completing defined stages of work and measured client-service standards pay for work performed rather than for a share of a fee.

A percentage of one case's fee, or a bounty for each matter signed, is where the exception stops describing what you are doing and state ethics questions start.

The model rule is the ABA's text — your state's adopted version controls — so put any case-linked design in front of your state bar's ethics counsel before it lands in an offer letter.

The state-bar opinions that draw the line are covered in our guide to staff bonuses under Rule 5.4.

How big should the incentive be?

Our research found no primary-source benchmark for staff bonus ranges, so there is no honest number to quote here — set it from your budget and the candidate's expectations, and treat any vendor table that promises a fixed percentage as marketing.

Honesty first: none of the sources behind this page is a ranked survey of what case-manager candidates value in a benefits package, so any list of what matters most is somebody's guess, including ours.

Build the package from what you can verify and what your own candidates ask for in interviews.

One concrete thing the law does tell you: in some states, the benefits description is posting content, not just offer content.

Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to disclose the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits and other compensation in each posting.

Illinois requires the pay scale and benefits in any specific posting at 15 or more employees.

Minnesota requires employers with 30 or more employees in the state to list the starting salary range and a general description of benefits, and its ranges may not be open-ended.

And Connecticut's rule, effective October 1, 2026, requires the wage or wage range and a general description of benefits in every internal or public job advertisement.

So write the actual package down before you post: health coverage, retirement, paid time off, schedule expectations, any training budget, and the review cadence you will commit to.

Retirement has a specific footing here — the same Model Rule 5.4(a)(3) exception that makes a profit-sharing bonus pool workable expressly covers compensation or retirement plans for nonlawyer employees.

And a small firm that cannot match a large employer's plan menu can still be specific about what it does offer: a posting that names the schedule and the review date reads better in an interview than a vague list of perks.

Build the number from your band, not from the candidate's past.

Asking about salary history is restricted by state law.

California's Labor Code 432.3 bars employers of any size from seeking an applicant's salary history — including compensation and benefits, orally or in writing, personally or through an agent — and from relying on it in deciding whether to hire or what to pay.

New York's Labor Law 194-a bars relying on an applicant's wage or salary history and requesting it as a condition of being interviewed, considered, hired or promoted, or obtaining it from a current or former employer.

Illinois law (820 ILCS 112/10(b-5) and (b-10)) makes it unlawful to screen applicants by salary history or request it as a condition of an interview or offer, or to seek it from a current or former employer.

And Massachusetts G.L. c.149 s.105A(c)(2) bars seeking a prospective employee's wage or salary history from the candidate or a current or former employer.

Those are the states our research confirmed — not a complete count.

Other states and many cities have their own rules, so check the current rule where you hire with your state labor agency before the question leaves your mouth.

Ask about expectations for this role instead.

California's statute expressly preserves the right to ask an applicant's salary expectation for the position, and if an applicant volunteers salary history without prompting, the employer may consider it.

New York and Massachusetts reopen the question later in the process: under New York's law, an employer may confirm salary history only if, at the time an offer with compensation is made, the applicant responds by providing prior wage or salary information; Massachusetts allows confirmation only after voluntary disclosure or after an offer with compensation has been made.

California adds a duty that cuts your way — on reasonable request, you must provide the position's pay scale to an applicant, regardless of employer size, so have the band written before interviews start.

Post the range before candidates ask.

California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in any job posting and to give it to any third party that posts for them, and it defines pay scale as a good-faith estimate of the salary or hourly range you reasonably expect to pay on hire — with penalties running $100 to $10,000 per violation.

New York requires businesses with four or more employees to list compensation ranges for advertised jobs.

Massachusetts requires employers with 25 or more employees in the state to disclose the pay range in postings, effective October 29, 2025.

Colorado requires compensation and benefits disclosure in all internal and public job postings.

A posted range is a good-faith number, not a ceiling you intend to negotiate under — post the band you would actually pay.

If you close with a signing bonus, mind California's stay-or-pay law.

For contracts entered on or after January 1, 2026, it is unlawful in California to require a worker to pay a penalty, fee or cost — including a quit fee or a replacement-hire fee — if employment ends.

A signing-bonus repayment clause survives only if it clears every condition: it is in a separate agreement; the worker is told they may consult a lawyer and gets at least five business days; repayment is interest-free and prorated over a retention period of no more than two years; the worker may instead defer the bonus to the end of the period; and repayment applies only on voluntary quitting or firing for misconduct.

A worker can sue over a prohibited term for actual damages or $5,000 per worker, whichever is greater, plus injunctive relief and attorney's fees.

Our research covered California's rule only — have employment counsel review the repayment language anywhere you hire.

The rest of a winning offer is sequencing, not money.

Put the pay terms in writing: the rate or salary, the classification decision and why, how overtime is recorded and approved, and any bonus formula written out in full.

Attach the benefits package you drafted for the posting, and clear the non-pay checks — reference verification and your supervision plan — before the letter goes out.

Review the band on a calendar, not on a resignation.

An annual review is the workable rhythm for a seat like this, plus a re-benchmark whenever you re-post the role or lose a candidate to a competing offer.

Date-stamp whatever number you bring to the discussion — a figure quoted without its release date is not a benchmark.

Two kinds of numbers move under you.

Published data: the figures on this page are the OEWS May 2025 release, so check whether BLS has published a newer one before each benchmarking round.

Legal thresholds: if anyone on staff is classified exempt, the federal floor of $684 per week — $35,568 a year, as enforced by DOL as of October 2026 — moves when DOL or your state moves it, and state floors sit higher in several places.

California's white-collar exemptions require a monthly salary of at least two times the state minimum wage, which works out to $70,304 a year ($1,352 a week) at the 2026 minimum wage of $16.90 per hour.

New York's thresholds for executive and administrative employees from January 1, 2026 are $1,275.00 per week in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, and $1,199.10 per week in the rest of the state.

Washington's 2026 threshold is $1,541.70 per week ($80,168.40 a year) for all employers.

A salary set just above a floor can fall below it when the state resets the number — the California, New York and Washington figures above all took effect on January 1, 2026 — and an employee paid below the new floor no longer meets the exemption's salary test.

Re-check the floors whenever your state announces new rates, and re-check any exemption whose salary sits close to the line with employment counsel.

Then keep the internal promise.

Put the first review date in the offer itself, and bring the refreshed band to it: a raise decided from data reads as a system, while one decided by a counteroffer reads as a discount that got corrected.

The cheapest raise you will ever approve is the one that keeps a case manager you have already trained holding your files together.

Employer information, not legal advice. The wage figures on this page are BLS OEWS May 2025 data for the closest published occupation, and the classification, posting, salary-history, bonus-repayment and ethics rules described here change and vary by state — confirm what applies to your firm with your state labor agency, employment counsel and your state bar's ethics counsel before you act on them.