Lawyers in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$107,959
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$47,181
30.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$109,695
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$155,140
Kept after tax
$107,959
Worth in national money
$109,695
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for lawyers is strong here. Minnesota's middle earner gets $155,140, putting the state 12 of 51 — about 2.84% ahead of the national figure.
- Within Minnesota this is well-paid work. Of 490 occupations with published figures in the state, lawyers ranks 14 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $155,140 the take-home is $107,959, which is worth about $109,695 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $174,300, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For lawyers, Minnesota sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $155,140, ranking 12 of 51 and running about 2.84% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Ranked against every occupation Minnesota publishes a median for, lawyers sits 14 of 490 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Minnesota's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for lawyers on its $155,140 median: $107,959 retained after tax becomes $109,695 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $174,300 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Lawyers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $79,820 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $155,140 |
| Top tenth earn over | $341,170 |
| This salary | $155,140 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Minnesota | $107,959 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $117,304 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$11,019 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $141,467 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$15,666 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $155,140 as a midpoint for Minnesota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $79,820 and the ninetieth is $341,170 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $107,959 take-home in Minnesota comes from $155,140. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 14 of 490.
- Two cautions on $109,695, the adjusted value of that $155,140 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Minnesota. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 14 of 490 locally.
- The Minnesota median of $155,140 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $79,820 to $341,170. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $107,959, from $155,140, assumes a single Minnesota filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 14 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 12 of 51 for it.
- This $109,695 adjusted figure, worked from $155,140, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 14 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 14 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $174,300, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $79,820 and the top tenth $341,170 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $109,695 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Minnesota then takes its own share, leaving $107,959.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Minnesota is $174,300. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($79,820) and the ninetieth ($341,170) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $109,695 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $107,959 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.