Paralegal Salary Surveys and The Three Bears

Whether you’re negotiating your salary or just plain curious, there’s a lot of information available about paralegal salaries.

Benchmark With Confidence I got an email from today with their new Paraleal Survey that’s available here...and the cost is only $455. As Papa Bear would say, ‘2010 Annual Compensation Survey for Paralegals/Legal Assistants and Managers

Our comprehensive compensation survey for law firms and law departments takes an in-depth look at salary, bonuses, billing rates, overtime and benefits data for exempt and non-exempt employees including paralegals, legal assistants and managers.

For your convenience, this valuable information is further refined by:

National, Regional & Metropolitan Area Data
Practice Area and Industry
Organization Size
Years of Experience

Order your copy today and have all the necessary tools to attract, motivate and retain the best paralegal staff at your fingertips.

Click here to purchase the 2010 Annual Compensation Survey for Paralegals/Legal Assistants and Managers.

Paralegal Today published the in its April issue. It’s available to subscribers…and you can also purchase an individual issue by and the cost is only …really not bad for such a comprehensive study.

Then comes free..yes, a salary survey that’s available on line …available to any one…and totally free.

It just seems smart to start with free and then work your way up to the others if that doesn’t suit your needs.

Please leave a comment to let me know if there are other paralegal salary surveys out there and I’ll be sure

Paralegal Salary Survey Reveals Dip in Paralegal Compensation
Friday June 4, 2010
Paralegal salaries, raises and bonuses fell slightly in 2009, according to Paralegal Today (formerly Legal Assistant Today) magazine’s 18th Annual Salary Survey, published in the April/June 2010 issue.

This year’s survey reports that the national average salary for paralegals in 2009 was $52,214, a 4.8% decrease from the previous year. The highest reported full-time salary was $175,000 and the lowest annual salary was $14,000.

Paralegals received an average raise of $2,429 in 2009 while the largest reported raise was $17,300. Slightly less than half of all paralegals received a raise although 62% of those surveyed believed they were paid fairly; many were thankful for having a job.

Top earning paralegal specialties were intellectual property, commercial law and securities law while the lowest paying specialties were family law, criminal law and plaintiff’s personal injury law, according to survey respondents.

8.7 percent experienced layoffs and downsizing in 2009 compared to just 2.5 percent in 2008. However, the number of paralegal positions within law firms and other work environments largely remained the same. 72% of respondents reported that the number of paralegal positions in their organization did not change in 2009 and 11% of respondents reported an increase in paralegal positions.

While the dip in salaries was the product of a recessionary economy, the paralegal industry itself is still growing, the survey notes.

For a full copy of the 14-page survey and charts, contact Sherry McCoy at Conexion International Media: [email protected].

NALA http://www.nala.org/Upload/file/PDF-Files/08SEC4.pdf