Paralegals and Legal Assistants Salary

Yes — at the median salary of $61K, rent takes 27.1% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,148/month. That stays under the 30% guideline most financial planners use.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new paralegals and legal assistants typically earn — is $48K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $2,897/month.

Pay here is roughly in line with the national average — $61K locally vs. $63K nationally, a 3% difference.

Eastern Washington nonmetropolitan area pays $61K median vs. the U.S. average of $63K — that’s -3%.

The median is $60,720 a year, that works out to about $29 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $48,290, and experienced paralegals and legal assistants can clear $95,060. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $4,236/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,148/month, which eats 27.1% of your paycheck. That's under the 30% guideline most financial planners use, so the numbers work.

Eastern Washington nonmetropolitan area has a Regional Price Parity of 100 (100 is the national average). That's right at the national average. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median paralegals and legal assistants salary is worth about $60,720 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.