The salary statistics of lawyers and judicial law clerks are shown in Table 1. The average hourly salary of lawyers and judicial law clerks in the United States is shown in Table 2. In the next few tables we compare the average salaries of lawyers and judicial law clerks within different industry sectors and in the 50 states of the United States. The lawyers and judicial law clerks annual salary statistics are from the national compensation survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2022 and published in April 2023 [1].
| Percentile Bracket | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th Percentile Wage | $64,710 |
| 25th Percentile Wage | $90,210 |
| 50th Percentile Wage | $134,140 |
| 75th Percentile Wage | $206,940 |
| 90th Percentile Wage | No Data |
Table 1 shows the average annual salary for lawyers and judicial law clerks. The average annual salary for the 75th percentile (the top 25 percent of the highest paid) is $206,940. The median annual salary (50th percentile) is $134,140. The average annual salary for the bottom 10 percent is $64,710. It is noted that in the United States, the annual salary of the 75th percentile (the top 25 percent of the highest paid) is almost 219% higher than that of the bottom 10 percent.
The table and chart below show the trend of the median salary of lawyers and judicial law clerks from 2012 to 2022.
| Year | Median Salary | Yearly Growth | 10-Year Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $134,140 | 4.81% | 16.42% |
| 2021 | $127,690 | 2.08% | - |
| 2020 | $125,040 | 3.49% | - |
| 2019 | $120,670 | 1.75% | - |
| 2018 | $118,560 | 1.30% | - |
| 2017 | $117,020 | 0.66% | - |
| 2016 | $116,250 | 1.69% | - |
| 2015 | $114,280 | 0.81% | - |
| 2014 | $113,360 | 0.48% | - |
| 2013 | $112,820 | 0.62% | - |
| 2012 | $112,120 | - | - |
The average salaries of lawyers and judicial law clerks in 19 major industry sectors are shown in Table 2. We note that the salaries vary considerably within different industry sectors. The highest paying industry sector for lawyers and judicial law clerks occupations is the mining sector with an annual salary $224,720. The lowest paying sector is the health care and social assistance sector (annual salary $103,620).