Median Reported Salaries by Employer Type in the 20 Cities Providing the Most Jobs
to the Class of 2010
| PRIVATE PRACTICE | BUSINESS | GOVERNMENT | ||||
| Median | # reported | Median | # reported | Median | # reported | |
| Atlanta | $110,000 | 171 | $70,000 | 23 | $58,494 | 36 |
| Austin | 93,500 | 54 | 55,000 | 9 | 48,000 | 20 |
| Baltimore | 87,000 | 43 | 70,000 | 17 | 52,000 | 21 |
| Boston | 160,000* | 267 | 70,000 | 27 | 45,500 | 28 |
| Chicago | 145,000 | 524 | 70,000 | 67 | 55,937 | 67 |
| Cleveland | 100,000 | 61 | 67,000 | 10 | 49,000 | 11 |
| Columbus | 72,000 | 43 | 62,400 | 15 | 45,000 | 21 |
| Dallas | 150,000 | 188 | 72,000 | 31 | 55,000 | 11 |
| Denver | 105,000 | 63 | 60,000 | 12 | 54,800 | 14 |
| Houston | 135,000 | 246 | 65,000 | 65 | 60,000 | 15 |
| Los Angeles | 160,000* | 418 | 70,000 | 18 | 62,926 | 24 |
| Miami | 85,000 | 130 | 54,120 | 6 | 40,000 | 55 |
| Minneapolis/St. Paul | 108,000 | 115 | 67,000 | 32 | 51,865 | 11 |
| New Orleans | 90,000 | 80 | — | — | 48,000 | 15 |
| New York City | 160,000* | 2,025 | 80,000 | 147 | 60,000 | 100 |
| Philadelphia | 125,000 | 131 | 70,000 | 15 | 50,620 | 23 |
| San Diego | 90,000 | 124 | 60,000 | 9 | 43,000 | 23 |
| San Francisco | 160,000 | 229 | 75,000 | 20 | 67,982 | 14 |
| Seattle | 105,000 | 77 | 62,000 | 15 | 56,150 | 20 |
| Washington, DC | 160,000* | 651 | 71,500 | 62 | 62,467 | 485 |
Note: Figures are based on salaries reported for full-time jobs only. The median is the mid-point in a ranking of salaries for a given city and employer type. However, because salaries tend to cluster, particularly in large firms, the law firm median is better thought of as a prevailing salary in some cases. This is especially true of cities marked with an asterisk (*), since at least 51% of salaries were reported at the amount shown as the median. In New York, 79% were. For these 20 cites as a whole, 55% of law firm salaries were reported as $160,000 followed by almost 6% reported as $145,000. However, the true percentage of law firm salaries at those amounts is less than that because of disproportionate reporting of salaries in large firms. The extend of that over-reporting varies from city to city depending on the mix of firm sizes in each city.
A dash indicates fewer than five salaries reported.
Source: NALP graduate employment survey for the law school Class of 2010.
