Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$45,687
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$10,563
18.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$45,051
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$56,250
Kept after tax
$45,687
Worth in national money
$45,051
State rank
42
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is among the lower-paying states for this job. The middle earner takes $56,250, ranking 42 of 51 states — about 10.56% below the national middle. Costs here are often lower too, which the figures further down account for.
- Against other work in Rhode Island, this sits in the middle: 281 of 452 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $56,250, tax leaves $45,687, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $45,051 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $58,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island ranks 42 of 51 for paralegals and legal assistants, with a median of $56,250 — about 10.56% 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 281 of 452 occupations in Rhode Island 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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for paralegals and legal assistants — median $56,250 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $45,687 retained, $45,051 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $58,630 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $43,370 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $56,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,650 |
| This salary | $56,250 |
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 Rhode Island | $45,687 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $47,377 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,703 |
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 | $54,147 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,478 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Rhode Island earn less than $56,250. The published range is $43,370 up to $79,650, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $45,687 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $56,250. 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 281 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $45,051, the adjusted value of that $56,250 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 281 of 452 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for paralegals and legal assistants in Rhode Island the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $43,370 to $79,650. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $45,687, from $56,250, assumes a single Rhode Island 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 281 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 42 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $45,051 — the adjusted value of that $56,250 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 281 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $58,630, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $43,370 at the bottom tenth to $79,650 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $45,051 of national purchasing power.
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; Rhode Island then takes its own share, leaving $45,687.
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 Rhode Island is $58,630. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($43,370 to $79,650) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $45,051 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $45,687 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.