Legal Occupations

Broad Occupation

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2023 Workforce
1.78M
Average Age
45.7
Average Salary
$149,513
Average Male Salary
$195,314
Average Female Salary
$112,551

About

Legal Occupations are most often employed by the Legal services industry. The average yearly wage for Legal Occupations was $149,513 in 2023.

Photo by Dave Wilson
Management, business, science, & arts occupationsEducation, legal, community service, arts, & media occupations

Employment

Employment and salary information for the Legal Occupations workforce. Legal Occupations workforce in 2023 was 1,779,037 people, of which 55.3% were women and 44.7% were men. Legal Occupations are paid most in NYC-Manhattan Community District 8--Upper East Side & Roosevelt Island PUMA, NY but are relatively concentrated in District of Columbia (West) PUMA, DC.

Employment Over Time

Metric
Grouping
794,518
Male Workforce
± 21.8k
984,519
Female Workforce
± 24.3k

The Legal Occupations workforce in 2023 was 1,779,037 people (55.3% women and 44.7% men). This implies an average annual growth of 19.4% between 2014 (1,490,300) and 2023 (1,779,037).

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Employment by Location

Level
Metric

This map shows the states in the United States shaded by average wage for Legal Occupations.

During 2023, the states that concentrated the best average annual wage were District of Columbia ($208,667), New York ($198,457), and Connecticut ($177,120).

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Yearly Wage Ranking

$149,513
AVERAGE WAGE
#1 in the ranking (2023)
$67,727
NATIONAL AVERAGE WAGE
For all occupations across the US

In 2023, Legal Occupations earned an average of $149,513, $81,786 more than the average national salary of $67,727

Legal Occupations are the highest paid occupation in the US followed by Management occupations. This chart shows the various occupations closest to Legal Occupations as measured by average annual salary in the US.

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Wage Distribution

Gender
0.456
WAGE GINI

In 2023, Legal Occupations had a wage GINI coefficient of 0.456, which is lower than the national average of 0.476. In other words, wages are distributed more evenly for Legal Occupations (shown in red) than for the overall labor force (shown in gray).

The graphic shows the distribution of average salaries by buckets for Legal Occupations compared to the entire workforce in the country.

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Industry

Information on the industries that employ Legal Occupations and on wages for those in the field. Legal services is the industry that employs the most Legal Occupations, both by share and by number, though the highest paid industry for Legal Occupations, by average wage, is Commercial & service industry machinery manufacturing ($505,201).

Occupations by Industries

Metric
Value
1.78M
2023 Workforce
± 32,556
2.78%
1 YEAR GROWTH
± 2.54%

This graphic shows the share of Legal Occupations employed by various industries. Legal services employs the largest share of Legal Occupations at 79.5%, followed by Justice, public order, & safety activities with 13.5% and uninformed with 3.69%.

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Diversity

Demographic information on Legal Occupations in the US. The workforce of Legal Occupations in 2023 was 1,779,037 people, with 55.3% woman, and 44.7% men. The average age of male Legal Occupations in the workforce is 47.7 and of female Legal Occupations is 44.2, and the most common race/ethnicity for Legal Occupations is White.

Gender and Age

Metric

The workforce of Legal Occupations in 2023 was 1,779,037 people, with 55.3% woman, and 44.7% men.

The age ranges that concentrated the largest workforce were 35 to 39 years (237,763 people), 30 to 34 years (221,690  people), and 40 to 44 years (216,658 people). Among them they concentrated 38% of the total workforce.

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Ethnicity

Gender

In 2023, 11.4% of Legal Occupations workers were Hispanic and 88.6% non-Hispanic.

The treemap shows the distribution of Hispanic workers according to their origin, highlighting Mexican (43.4%), Puerto Rican (15.4)%, and Cuban (8.63)%

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Races

In 2023, 76.1% of the Legal Occupations workforce were White, of which 52.5% were women and 47.5% men. Other races that concentrated a significant number of workers were Two or More Races (8.12%) and Black (7.26%).

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Education & Skills

Data on higher education choices for Legal Occupations from The Department of Education and Census Bureau. The most common major for Legal Occupations is Social Sciences but the most specialized major according to RCA in 2023 were Legal.

Among the necessary skills for Legal Occupations, Active Listening stands, but the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) shows that Legal Occupations need more than the average amount of Negotiation.

Majors

ACS PUMS data only shows the major for bachelor's degrees. However, we can filter the data based on highest degree obtained.
Type of Majors
Degree

The most common majors achieved by Legal Occupations in 2023 (counting all academic degrees) were Social Sciences (394,853 people), Business (216,654 people), and History (114,000 people).

You can review this information for different academic grades by modifying the option selected in the selector above.

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Education Levels

Metric

The main educational levels achieved by the Legal Occupations workers were Graduate Degree (1,118,327 people), Bachelors Degree (308,151 people), and Some college (146,631 people).

The graphic shows the Legal Occupations workforce by gender and educational level.

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Skills

Chart
Value

Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for Legal Occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Legal Occupations need many skills, but most especially Active Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension.

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