What data should law firms use for attorney salary planning?

Use a mix of BLS/OEWS data, NALP materials where applicable, Robert Half legal salary guidance, public job postings, recruiter intake conversations, and current candidate feedback.

Why not use one attorney salary number?

Attorney compensation varies by city, practice area, seniority, book of business, workload, bonus structure, hybrid expectations, and urgency.

Attorney Salary Guide for Law Firm Hiring

Updated July 2026

This attorney salary hub helps law firms think through compensation before launching a search. It does not pretend there is one universal salary number for every attorney role. Compensation depends on market, practice area, years of experience, book of business, hybrid/remote expectations, litigation workload, bonus structure, benefits, and the urgency of the hire.

Use these pages as a structured planning layer, then validate live ranges with public job postings, BLS/OEWS data, NALP materials where relevant, Robert Half legal salary guidance, recruiter intake conversations, and recent candidate feedback.

Real data baseline

May 2025 Lawyer Wage Benchmarks

The benchmark below uses BLS OEWS May 2025 data for SOC 23-1011, Lawyers. It is a real public-data baseline for compensation planning, but it is not a substitute for a live search calibration because it combines many attorney settings and practice areas.

National lawyer wage baseline

Employment estimate	754,500
Annual mean wage	$185,840
10th percentile annual wage	$78,360
25th percentile annual wage	$102,990
Annual median wage	$159,670
75th percentile annual wage	$221,370
90th percentile annual wage	$351,600

Priority market annual mean comparison

For city planning, the table below shows the BLS annual mean wage for Lawyers in each priority metro. Use the national percentile table above to understand broader distribution, then calibrate live for the specific role.

Market	BLS metro area	Annual mean wage
Houston, TX	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	$193,390
Dallas, TX	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	$188,640
Denver, CO	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$203,690
Phoenix, AZ	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	$161,240
San Francisco, CA	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$237,060
Austin, TX	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	$184,630
Washington, DC	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$226,780
San Diego, CA	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$203,680
Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$241,500
Columbus, OH	Columbus, OH	$154,090
Jacksonville, FL	Jacksonville, FL	$145,930
Las Vegas, NV	Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV	$207,920
Oklahoma City, OK	Oklahoma City, OK	$123,050
New York, NY	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$224,840

How to read these numbers

BLS gives the broad lawyer market. Use it as an outside benchmark, not a single offer recommendation.
NALP is useful for larger-firm associate pressure: the 2025 public release reported a $200,000 overall median first-year associate base salary, with $225,000 the most frequent reported national salary level.
Robert Half projects 2026 legal salaries up 1.4% on average and law-firm attorney salaries up 1.5%, with 77% of legal leaders concerned about keeping pace with candidate pay expectations.

Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025 tables, BLS metropolitan OEWS data, NALP 2025 Associate Salary Survey release, Robert Half 2026 Legal Salary Guide, and Robert Half 2026 legal salary trends.