Federal Attorney Salaries
With a college degree, three years of law school and passing of a written bar exam required, becoming an attorney is a long road. Many attorneys are employed by the government, with those at the federal level investigating cases for the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies. Attorneys employed by the federal government earn a salary much higher than the average for all salaries in the United States.
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Average Salary
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The annual mean wage for an attorney working for the federal executive branch is $127,550, while those employed by the federal government earn an average of $127,490, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While this is slightly below the overall average of attorneys in the United States at $129,020, it is much higher than the mean annual wages of attorneys working for the local government and state government, which are $91,040 and $82,750, respectively.
Location
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Most federal attorneys, and most attorneys overall, are located in Washington, D.C. This jurisdiction has the highest annual mean wage for attorneys in the country at $156,750. New York follows with an average salary of $152,710, and Delaware comes in third at $152,300. California and Georgia rank fourth and fifth at salary averages of $151,970 and $142,930, respectively. However, the highest-paying area for attorneys in the United States is San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, at an annual mean wage of $192,020.
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Outlook
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that while most government-employed attorneys work at the local level, those that do work for the federal government are concentrated in the departments of Justice, Treasury and Defense. The employment of lawyers was projected to increase 13 percent from 2008 to 2018, which is about the average for all occupations in the United States. However, with the large number of students that graduate from law school per year, competition for these higher-paying positions in the federal government is likely to be fierce.
Expert Insight
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The United States Department of Justice has two pay scales for attorneys. Those hired by the U.S. attorneys' offices receive payment under an Administratively Determined (AD) pay scale, while all others are paid under the General Schedule (GS) for federal employees. Experience in the field of law also has a heavy hand in deciding the salary of a federal attorney. For example, an attorney on the GS pay scale with less than a year of experience earns between $50,287 and $65,371 (not including locality pay), while one with four or more years of experience has a significantly higher salary range of $99,628 to $129,517.
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References
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