Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Michigan
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$49,742
after federal, FICA and Michigan tax
Tax takes
$12,428
20.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,814
Michigan costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Michigan — 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
$62,170
Kept after tax
$49,742
Worth in national money
$52,814
State rank
24
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Michigan pays this job around $62,170 at the midpoint, 24 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against other work in Michigan, this sits in the middle: 214 of 493 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $62,170 you keep $49,742 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $52,814 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $67,240, since top earners drag the number up.
- For paralegals and legal assistants the Michigan median is $62,170, ranking 24 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Paralegals and legal assistants ranks 214 of 493 occupations in Michigan 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.
- Retained pay in Michigan is $49,742 after the full tax stack, from $62,170. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $52,814 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $67,240 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Paralegals and Legal Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $46,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $96,610 |
| This salary | $62,170 |
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 Michigan | $49,742 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,134 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$835 |
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 | $59,194 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,010 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Michigan earn less than $62,170. The published range is $46,590 up to $96,610, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Michigan's $49,742, worked from $62,170. 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 214 of 493.
- Two cautions on $52,814, the adjusted value of that $62,170 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Michigan. 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 214 of 493 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for paralegals and legal assistants in Michigan the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $46,590 to $96,610. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Michigan take-home of $49,742, on $62,170 for work ranking 214 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 214 of 493 in the state.
- This $52,814 adjusted figure, worked from $62,170, 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 214 of 493 in the state. The occupation ranks 214 of 493 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 $67,240 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 $46,590, the highest tenth $96,610, 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. Michigan is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $52,814 in national terms.
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; Michigan then takes its own share, leaving $49,742.
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 Michigan is $67,240. 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 ($46,590) and the ninetieth ($96,610) 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?
Michigan'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 $52,814 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 $49,742 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Michigan 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.