South Carolina / Attorney General's Office / Legal Assistant

Job-title file

Legal Assistant

Provide legal advice, draft and review documents, and represent the agency in legal matters.

9 employees hold this title in Attorney General's Office. Median total compensation for the role is $54,191, below the department median of $75,136.

Employees: 9
Total payroll: $498.3K
Role median: $54,191
Agency median: $75,136
Comparison: Below

What the records show

Role pay distribution

Pay distribution for this role

$52,027$60,900+

Hover a bar for its range; click to filter the list below.

How total compensation varies among the 9 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.

Compared with the local labor market

Legal Assistant pay vs. South Carolina

Across all employers in South Carolina, the median wage for Paralegals and Legal Assistants — about 7,420 people — is $53,880. Attorney General's Office pays a median base salary of $54,191 for this role, in line with that figure — about the 51st percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Where Attorney General's Office sits in the local pay range

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$38,020

$46,630

$53,880

$61,620

$75,640

Attorney General's Office median · $54,191

The bar is the range of annual wages for Paralegals and Legal Assistants across every employer in South Carolina, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Attorney General's Office’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. Attorney General's Office’s median base salary is 14% below that national figure, about the 33rd percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.

10th

25th

Median

75th

90th

$44,740

$50,340

$62,890

$80,080

$101,500

Attorney General's Office median · $54,191

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 South Carolina range relative to the national one.

Median total compensation for this role at Attorney General's Office is $54,191, 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

This role across South Carolina

Legal Assistant is held in 3 South Carolina departments. In Attorney General's Office, the median of $54,191 ranks #2 of 3.

Highest-paying departments for this role

Governor's Off-Sled

$55,139 · 2

Department of Revenue

$50,424 · 1

Median total compensation for the Legal Assistant role in other South Carolinadepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.

Compare jurisdictions

Legal Assistant beyond South Carolina

This role is reported in 19 jurisdictions. In South Carolina, the median of $54,342 ranks #13 of 19. See Legal Assistant across all of South Carolina →

Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role

City and County of San Francisco

$165,860 · 132

$128,283 · 63

$125,840 · 19

$87,537 · 7

$81,494 · 16

$67,448 · 569

$66,924 · 61

City of Phoenix, Arizona

$65,621 · 35

Median total compensation for comparable Legal Assistant roles 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.

Same department