City of Baltimore / Law Department / Legal Assistant I
Job-title file
Provide legal advice, draft and review documents, and represent the agency in legal matters.
1 employees hold this title in Law Department. Median total compensation for the role is $53,798, below the department median of $121,406.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD area, the median wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants — about 3,880 people — is $65,640. Law Department pays a median base salary of $52,132 for this role, 21% below that figure — about the 26th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for Paralegals and Legal Assistants across every employer in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Law Department’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants — about 392,880 people — is $62,890. Law Department’s median base salary is 17% below that national figure, about the 29th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 31 of 34 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Law Department is $51,234, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare departments
Legal Assistant I is held in 5 City of Baltimore departments. In Law Department, the median of $53,798 ranks #2 of 5.
Median total compensation for the Legal Assistant I role in other City of Baltimoredepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 19 jurisdictions. In City of Baltimore, the median of $49,007 ranks #14 of 19. See Legal Assistant across all of City of Baltimore →
Median total compensation for comparable Legal Assistantroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
Page 1
Legal Assistant I/Law Department
Source-specific fields
At Law Department, Karen L Hurt serves as a Legal Assistant I. They have served since 1986 (about 39 years). Their 2025 pay totaled $53,798.