Paralegal

Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants — about 22,240 people — is $77,520. County Counsel pays a median base salary of $75,423 for this role, 3% below that figure — about the 47th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Median total compensation for this role at County Counsel is $139,542, 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.

Paralegal is held in 8 Los Angeles County departments. In County Counsel, the median of $139,542 ranks #5 of 8.

This role is reported in 25 jurisdictions. In Los Angeles County, the median of $142,972 ranks #1 of 25. See Paralegal across all of Los Angeles County →