Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Kansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$43,592
after federal, FICA and Kansas tax
Tax takes
$11,408
20.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$48,454
Kansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Kansas — 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
$55,000
Kept after tax
$43,592
Worth in national money
$48,454
State rank
43
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Kansas is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $55,000, ranking 43 of 51 states — about 12.55% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Kansas, this sits in the middle: 246 of 488 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Here is where Kansas does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $55,000 you keep $43,592, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $48,454 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $57,680, because the best-paid pull it up.
- Kansas ranks 43 of 51 for paralegals and legal assistants, with a median of $55,000 — about 12.55% 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 488 occupations in Kansas 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.
- After federal, FICA and Kansas income tax, retained pay for paralegals and legal assistants on $55,000 is $43,592. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $48,454 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $57,680 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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 | $38,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $55,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,090 |
| This salary | $55,000 |
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 Kansas | $43,592 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $46,373 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$734 |
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 | $51,540 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$888 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of paralegals and legal assistants in Kansas earn under $55,000 and half over. The published range runs $38,860 at the tenth percentile to $79,090 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Kansas's $43,592, worked from $55,000. 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 488.
- One number stands for prices across all of Kansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $48,454, the adjusted value of that $55,000 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 488 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for paralegals and legal assistants in Kansas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,860 to $79,090; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The Kansas take-home of $43,592, on $55,000 for work ranking 246 of 488 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 488 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Kansas, so $48,454 — the adjusted value of that $55,000 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 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $57,680 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,860, the highest tenth $79,090, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $48,454.
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 Kansas's own levy, $43,592 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Kansas is $57,680. 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 ($38,860) and the ninetieth ($79,090) 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?
Kansas'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 $48,454 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 $43,592 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Kansas 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.