June 07, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Wages in legal occupations in 2000

Legal occupations had the highest average wage of the major occupational groups in 2000. Mean wages in 2000 for legal occupations ranged from $15.17 per hour for law clerks to $43.90 per hour for lawyers.

Mean hourly wage in legal occupations, 2000
[Chart data—TXT]

Besides law clerks, two other legal occupations had mean hourly wages below $20: title examiners, abstractors, and searchers ($16.32) and paralegals and legal assistants ($18.65). In addition to lawyers, two other legal occupations had mean hourly wages over $30: judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates ($37.85) and administrative law judges, adjudicators, and hearing officers ($31.32).

These data are a product of the Occupational Employment Statistics program. Find out more in Occupational Employment and Wages, 2000, BLS Bulletin 2549.

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