Legal salary guide
Salary Needed for Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Massachusetts
Paralegals and Legal Assistants in Massachusetts: compare salary needs with estimated annual costs. Basic costs are about $64,576, while a 20% cushion is about $77,491.
Updated with BLS OEWS source metadata from May 2025; cost estimates reflect current WatchPennies county-level data.
Salary adequacy in Massachusetts
WatchPennies compares paralegal or legal assistant salary context with statewide median county costs for a single adult household. The comfort target adds a 20% cushion for savings, emergencies, and month-to-month variation.
Baseline annual costs
$64,576
About $5,381 per month.
Comfort salary target
$77,491
About $6,458 per month.
OEWS median salary
$77,640
Adequacy versus comfort target: 100%.
The available salary benchmark is $149 above the WatchPennies comfort target for Massachusetts.
Estimated cost mix
View Massachusetts cost of livingMore Paralegals and Legal Assistants states
Compare salary-needed targets for this occupation across all states.
Massachusetts cost of living
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Common questions
What salary is needed for paralegals and legal assistants in Massachusetts?
WatchPennies estimates baseline annual costs around $64,576 for a single adult household in Massachusetts. A 20% comfort cushion is about $77,491.
Does this page use an official Massachusetts wage benchmark?
Yes. The occupation wage benchmark on this page is imported from BLS OEWS.
What costs are included in the salary-needed estimate?
The estimate includes housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare where applicable, other necessities, taxes, and income context from WatchPennies cost data.
Related occupation pages
Sources
Wage benchmark fields are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025, last modified 2026-05-15). Cost estimates use WatchPennies county cost data for housing, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, necessities, taxes, and income context.