Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Indiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,351
after federal, FICA and Indiana tax
Tax takes
$10,679
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$50,281
Indiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Indiana — 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
$57,030
Kept after tax
$46,351
Worth in national money
$50,281
State rank
41
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Indiana is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $57,030, ranking 41 of 51 states — about 9.32% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Indiana, this sits in the middle: 246 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Indiana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $57,030 the take-home is $46,351; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $50,281 would nationally. The average comes to $61,830, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Indiana ranks 41 of 51 for paralegals and legal assistants, with a median of $57,030 — about 9.32% below the national figure. A nominal shortfall is not by itself a real one: lower-paying states frequently carry lower tax and lower price levels, and the adjusted figures below are where that is settled rather than assumed.
- Paralegals and legal assistants ranks 246 of 493 occupations in Indiana by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Post-tax income for paralegals and legal assistants in Indiana, on $57,030, is $46,351 — equivalent to $50,281 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $61,830 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Paralegals and Legal Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $40,650 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,030 |
| Top tenth earn over | $92,160 |
| This salary | $57,030 |
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 Indiana | $46,351 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,004 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$882 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $54,973 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,066 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $57,030 as a midpoint for Indiana, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $40,650 and the ninetieth is $92,160 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Indiana's $46,351, worked from $57,030. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 246 of 493.
- One number stands for prices across all of Indiana, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $50,281, the adjusted value of that $57,030 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 246 of 493 in the state.
- The Indiana median of $57,030 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $40,650 to $92,160. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Indiana take-home of $46,351, on $57,030 for work ranking 246 of 493 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 246 of 493 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Indiana, so $50,281 — the adjusted value of that $57,030 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 246 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $61,830, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $40,650, the highest tenth $92,160, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Indiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $50,281 in national terms.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Indiana's own levy, $46,351 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Indiana is $61,830. 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 ($40,650) and the ninetieth ($92,160) 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?
Indiana'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 $50,281 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 $46,351 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Indiana 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.