Paralegals and Legal Assistants in North Carolina
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$46,596
after federal, FICA and North Carolina tax
Tax takes
$10,904
19.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$49,497
North Carolina costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Carolina — 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
$57,500
Kept after tax
$46,596
Worth in national money
$49,497
State rank
39
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. North Carolina pays this job a middle wage of $57,500, 39 of 51 states and about 8.57% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Against other work in North Carolina, this sits in the middle: 230 of 489 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 $57,500 you keep $46,596 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $49,497 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $60,770, since top earners drag the number up.
- North Carolina's $57,500 median for paralegals and legal assistants places it 39 of 51 states, about 8.57% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Paralegals and legal assistants ranks 230 of 489 occupations in North Carolina 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 North Carolina is $46,596 after the full tax stack, from $57,500. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $49,497 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $60,770 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 | $38,570 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $57,500 |
| Top tenth earn over | $84,410 |
| This salary | $57,500 |
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 North Carolina | $46,596 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $48,381 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$291 |
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 | $55,278 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$352 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 94 |
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 North Carolina earn under $57,500 and half over. The published range runs $38,570 at the tenth percentile to $84,410 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $46,596 take-home in North Carolina comes from $57,500. 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 230 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of North Carolina, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $49,497, the adjusted value of that $57,500 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 230 of 489 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for paralegals and legal assistants in North Carolina, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $38,570 to $84,410; 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.
- Retained pay of $46,596, from $57,500, assumes a single North Carolina 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 230 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 39 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for North Carolina, so $49,497 — the adjusted value of that $57,500 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 230 of 489 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 $60,770, 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $38,570, the highest tenth $84,410, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Carolina sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $49,497 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; North Carolina then takes its own share, leaving $46,596.
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 North Carolina is $60,770. 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 ($38,570) and the ninetieth ($84,410) 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?
North Carolina'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 $49,497 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 $46,596 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Carolina 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.