Paralegal Specialist - Federal Salaries of 2021
Pay Rates for "Paralegal Specialist"
How much does a Paralegal Specialist in the federal government get paid? $83,133.11* *Based on the 2021 average.Paralegal Specialist was the 51st most popular job in the U.S. Government in 2021, with 5,935 employed. The most common payscale was the general schedule payscale.
In 2021, the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys and the Office of U.s Attorneys hired the most employees titled Paralegal Specialist, with an average salary of $88,902.
Government Paralegal Specialist jobs are classified under the General Schedule (GS) payscale. The minimum paygrade for a Paralegal Specialist job is GS-4, and the highest paygrade that can be attained within this job series is GS-15. Remember that the starting and maximum yearly pay listed above reflect base pay only - your actual salary will be higher based on the Locality Pay Adjustment for the area in which you work.
This occupation includes positions not requiring professional legal competence which involve various legal assistance duties, of a type not classifiable in some other occupation in the Legal and Kindred Group, in connection with functions such as hearings, appeals, litigation, or advisory services. The specialists analyze the legal impact of legislative developments and administrative and judicial decisions, opinions, determinations, and rulings on agency programs; conduct research for the preparation of legal opinions on matters of interest to the agency; perform substantive legal analysis of requests for information under the provisions of various acts; or other similar legal support functions which require discretion and independent judgment in the application of a specialized knowledge of laws, precedent decisions, regulations, agency policies and practices, and judicial or administrative proceedings. Such knowledge is less than that represented by graduation from a recognized law school, and may have been gained from formalized, professionally instructed agency or educational institution training or from professionally supervised on-the-job training. While the paramount knowledge requirements of this occupation are legal, some positions also require a practical knowledge of subject matter areas related to the agency's substantive programs.
Agencies that have hired a Paralegal Specialist
Paralegal Specialist Pay Distribution
The average pay for a Paralegal Specialist is $83,133.11. The highest paid Paralegal Specialist made $192,347 in 2021.
Common Paralegal Specialist Payscales
Payscale | Number of Paralegal Specialist Employees |
---|---|
GS - General Schedule | 5,762 |
SK - Non-supervisorty Postions Employed By The Securities And Exchange Commission (sec) And Formerly Under Gs Pay | 83 |
CG - Corporate Graded | 29 |
CN - Bureau Of Consumer Financial Protect(cfpb) Independent Agcy Within The Fed Res Syst(use By Cfpb Only) | 25 |
CT - Commodity Futures Trading Commission Positions Previously Defined Under Pay Plan Codes Ad, Es, Gm, And Gs | 11 |
ZA - Administrative | 3 |
GG - Grades Similar To General Schedule | 3 |
IC - Employees Holding Incident Management Cadre Of On-call Response/recovery Employees(core)positions | 3 |
SV - Transportation Security Administration Employees Other Than Executives | 3 |
IR - Internal Revenue Service Broadband Classification And Pay System Positions Only | 2 |
NY - All Other Positions In The Corporation For National And Community Service, P.l. 103-82, Subtitle G, Section | 2 |
NQ - Employees In The National Nuclear Secuirty Administration's Professional, Technical, And Admin Career Path | 2 |
GL - Gs Employees In Grades 3 Through 10 Paid A Law Enforcement Officer Special Base Rate | 2 |
CU - Credit Union Employees | 2 |
EL - Non-executive Positions At The Federal Housing Finance Agency | 1 |
SL - Senior Level Positions | 1 |
PG - Printing Office Grades | 1 |
Starting Paygrade: | $28,921.00 / year base pay at paygrade GS-4, Step 1 |
Maximum Paygrade: | $152,771.00 / year base pay at paygrade GS-15, Step 10 |
Category: | Administrative and Management |
Occupation Family: | 0900 LEGAL AND KINDRED GROUP |
Other Jobs at the GS-4 Paygrade
GS-4 is the starting paygrade for Paralegal Specialist jobs. Here are some other Federal Government jobs that can be held by employees at the GS-4 paygrade.
Occupation | Occupation Category | Starting Paygrade | Maximum Paygrade |
---|---|---|---|
Technical Writing and Editing | Administrative and Management | GS-4 | GS-15 |
Building Management | Administrative and Management | GS-4 | GS-15 |
Accounting Technician | Clerical and Administrative Support | GS-1 | GS-9 |
Telecommunications | Administrative and Management | GS-4 | GS-15 |
Land Law Examining | Administrative and Management | GS-4 | GS-15 |
Average Paralegal Specialist Pay Trend from 2004 to 2021
In 2004, the average pay for a Paralegal Specialist was $63,202. Since then, the average pay has increased to $83,133 in 2021.
Data Sources
The information provided on these pages is sourced from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI)
dataset. Postal Service data is managed exclusively by the USPS
. All information is displayed unmodified and as provided by the source agency.
Federal employee salaries are public information under open government laws (5 U.S.C. § 552). FederalPay provides this data in the interest of government transparency — employee data may not be used for commercial soliciting or vending of any kind. Learn more about the FederalPay Employees Dataset here.
The series code of this occupation is 0950
.