City of Philadelphia / Senior Attorney
Role across City of Philadelphia
Senior Attorney
Provide legal advice, draft and review documents, and represent the agency in legal matters.
83 people hold the Senior Attorney role across 1 department in City of Philadelphia, with a median total compensation of $28,347. Among 6 jurisdictions where this role is reported, City of Philadelphia ranks #6 by median pay.
- Employees
- 83
- Median pay
- $28,347
- Departments
- 1
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #6 of 6
Compared with the local labor market
Senior Attorney pay vs. the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area
Across all employers in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area, the median wage for Lawyers — about 19,040 people — is $170,660. City of Philadelphia pays a median base salary of $28,347 for this role, 83% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where City of Philadelphia sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Lawyers across every employer in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows City of Philadelphia’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Lawyers — about 754,500 people — is $159,670. City of Philadelphia’s median base salary is 82% below that national figure, below the 10th 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 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 69 of 83 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 City of Philadelphia is $28,347, 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 jurisdictions
Senior Attorney pay in other jurisdictions
Where Senior Attorneys are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Senior Attorneyroles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.