BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 23-1011 · 91,870 NY workers
Attorney Salary in New York 2026, $207,860 Median | BLS Data by City
No state's legal market is as lopsided as New York's. Manhattan's large firms and in-house departments set a national ceiling, upstate practice runs on rural county rates, and both are counted in one statewide series, which is why the New York attorney distribution looks less like a bell curve than two separate professions stacked on top of each other.
Updated July 2026 · BLS OEWS May 2025
Compiled by GlobalCybers Labor Market Research · Reviewed by Renee Caldwell, J.D., Legal Recruitment Lead · See methodology & sources →
NY Median
$207,860
$99.93/hr
vs National
+$48,190
30.2% above US median
NY P90
$391,420
$188.18/hr · top earners
NY Job Growth
+4.1%
2024–2034 · national BLS EP 2024–34
🤑New York's tax treatment matters more for attorneys than for almost any other occupation on this site, because so much of the profession sits in the top brackets and inside New York City. State rates run from 4% to 10.9%, and a New York City resident adds a city income tax of about 3.078% to 3.876%; an attorney at the state 75th percentile of $322,120 living in Manhattan therefore faces a combined state-and-city marginal rate that no other US legal market imposes. Employees also fund Paid Family Leave at 0.432% of wages, capped in the low hundreds of dollars, and statutory disability coverage. Commuting from New Jersey or Connecticut removes the city tax but not the New York state tax, since New York taxes income sourced to work performed in the state.
Direct Answer
How much do attorneys make in New York in 2026?
New York attorneys earn a median $207,860 a year, or $99.93 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 30.2% above the $159,670 national median and the highest statewide attorney figure in the country. The distribution is extreme even by legal-market standards: $85,200 at the 10th percentile against $322,120 at the 75th and $391,420 at the 90th, a range of nearly five to one within a single state. New York-Newark-Jersey City is the only metro at the statewide level, at $208,880; the next-highest, Rochester, pays $148,150, and Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh $138,630. → Full attorney career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $207,860 blends every experience level, apprentice through master. For pay by license level alone, see pay by level below.
Key takeaways
New York attorneys earn a median $207,860/yr ($99.93/hr) per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 23-1011), 30.2% above the $159,670 national median; the state P10–P90 range is $85,200 to $391,420.
The gap between New York-Newark-Jersey City at $208,880 and Rochester at $148,150 is roughly sixty thousand dollars, and the gap between the state 10th percentile of $85,200 and the 75th of $322,120 is what actually separates the two halves of New York practice.
New York's location quotient of 1.95 means the state employs nearly twice its population share of lawyers; the concentration is what allows the top of the market to pay above every peer state, including the District of Columbia at $195,190 and California at $195,080.
Admission in New York runs through the Appellate Division rather than a bar association, and New York is a Uniform Bar Exam state, so a portable UBE score plus New York's own online law course and exam is the practical route in for out-of-state lawyers.
New York at a glance
Median salary$207,860
Median hourly$99.93
Range (P10–P90)$85,200–$391,420
Top-paying metroNew York-Newark-Jersey City · $208,880
vs national30.2% above
State income tax6.85%
NY employment (BLS)91,870
Location quotient1.95× US concentration
Wage basisBLS OEWS May 2025, New York
New York Attorney Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
$85,200
P10
$127,580
P25
$207,860
Median
$322,120
P75
$391,420
P90
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025
Methodology & Sources
How the New York attorney pay figures on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 23-1011, New York statewide estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them. OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation in New York; it does not break pay out by credential or licence level.
Pay by level: the level and career-stage tables on this page distribute New York's own published BLS pay range across the tiers employers actually hire at. They are GlobalCybers estimates aligned to published percentiles, not separate BLS publications.
Placement sample: GlobalCybers holds no New York placement sample for this occupation, so this page shows published and percentile-aligned figures only — no placement-based median is claimed anywhere on it.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. New York-Newark-Jersey City leads the state at $208,880.
Getting Licensed
How to become a licensed attorney in New York, step by step
1
Sit the Uniform Bar Examination
Take the UBE in New York or transfer a qualifying score, then complete the New York Law Course and New York Law Exam and the 50-hour pro bono requirement.
2
Get admitted through the Appellate Division
File your admission application with the Appellate Division department covering your residence or practice, clear character and fitness, and satisfy the skills competency requirement.
3
Move into the New York City transactional or litigation market
The single largest pay change available in New York is sector, not seniority. Moving from public-sector or upstate practice into the New York-Newark-Jersey City market at $208,880 is the step that reaches the state 75th percentile of $322,120.
4
Build a priced specialism or a book of business
Securities, funds, restructuring and cross-border work are the practice areas New York prices highest, and partnership or senior in-house roles built on them reach the state 90th percentile of $391,420.
NYSBLE License Levels
What do New York attorneys earn at each stage of practice?
New York licenses issued by Appellate Division admission — New York lawyers are admitted by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on certification by the New York State Board of Law Examiners; there is no separate licensing board or mandatory bar association.. Each level's median pay in New York markets.
NYSBLE License
NY Pay Range
NY Median
Key Note
Newly admitted, public sector or small firm
$78K–$128K
$85,200
Around the state 10th percentile. District attorney and public defender offices, legal services organisations and small upstate practices hire at this level, and the figure is broadly the same in Buffalo as in Brooklyn because these employers are funded rather than market-priced.
Mid-career practitioner
$128K–$322K
$207,860
The New York median. A partner in a small upstate firm, a mid-level in-house counsel, or a government attorney with a decade of service all land near here — as does a large-firm associate in their very first year, which is the clearest illustration of how bimodal this market is.
Senior associate or in-house counsel, New York City
$306K–$391K
$322,120
The state 75th percentile. Senior associates at large Manhattan firms, counsel-level positions, and senior in-house roles at financial institutions. Almost all of this band is inside the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro.
Partner, or specialist counsel at the top of the market
$376K–$478K
$391,420
The state 90th percentile. Equity and non-equity partners, and specialist practitioners in areas the New York market prices highly: securities, funds, restructuring, and cross-border transactional work.
Beyond Base Pay
What's a New York attorney's total compensation, not just base wage?
BLS and verified-placement medians above are base wage only. Total comp for an NY attorney typically adds the following on top.
New York Attorney Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
How much do attorneys make in New York?
New York attorneys earn a median $207,860 a year, $99.93 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025. Half the profession earns between $127,580 and $322,120, and the full range runs $85,200 to $391,420. A median is a poor summary of this market — New York's legal salaries cluster at two separate points rather than around the middle.
Which New York city pays attorneys the most?
New York-Newark-Jersey City pays by far the most at $208,880, essentially setting the statewide figure on its own. Rochester follows at $148,150, then Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh at $138,630, Watertown-Fort Drum at $136,970 and Ithaca at $135,610. The sixty-thousand-dollar drop from the first metro to the second has no parallel in any other state's legal market.
How do I get admitted to practise law in New York?
New York admits lawyers through the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the judicial department where you apply, on the recommendation of the New York State Board of Law Examiners. You sit the Uniform Bar Examination, complete the New York Law Course and New York Law Exam, satisfy the skills competency and 50-hour pro bono requirements, and pass a character and fitness review. New York has no unified mandatory bar association issuing licences.
Can I transfer a bar licence from another state to New York?
Often, in two ways. A qualifying UBE score from another jurisdiction can be transferred within the portability window, subject to New York's course, exam and pro bono requirements. Separately, lawyers with five of the preceding seven years in practice in a jurisdiction New York recognises may seek admission on motion without examination. Both routes still require the character and fitness review.
Why is upstate New York attorney pay so much lower?
Because the two markets sell different products. Upstate practice is largely local: matrimonial, real estate, municipal, personal injury and criminal defence, priced against upstate incomes. The New York City market sells transactional and litigation work to global clients and prices against London and Hong Kong. A Rochester attorney at $148,150 is doing well by upstate standards while sitting below the statewide median.
Is the New York median a useful number for a job seeker?
Less than usual. Because large-firm entry salaries in New York City sit close to the statewide median while public-sector and small-firm salaries sit near the 10th percentile, very few New York attorneys are actually paid an amount near $207,860 as a mid-career wage. Compare yourself to the percentile that matches your sector rather than to the middle of the state.
What does the 90th percentile represent in New York?
Mostly partnership income reported as wages, plus senior in-house compensation at financial institutions. It is also where the BLS figure starts to understate reality: partner draws, deferred compensation and equity distributions are not fully captured in an occupational wage survey, so the true top of the New York market extends beyond the published $391,420.
How does the billable hour shape these figures?
In New York it converts hours directly into the spread you see. The $99.93 hourly median is a wage-derived figure, not a billing rate, and the gap between it and the 75th percentile is largely a function of annual hours expectations at large firms — commonly nineteen hundred to two thousand billed hours, with bonuses tied to hitting them. Government and legal-services attorneys have no such lever, which is why their pay stays flat across a career while firm pay does not.
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Outlook & openings: BLS projects 4.1% national growth for lawyers through 2034, and New York's 12.2% share of national employment works out to roughly 3,840 openings a year, pro-rated from the national average annual openings figure. That headline understates the churn: New York's large-firm sector turns over associates far faster than the profession as a whole, so the number of positions filled each year in New York City alone considerably exceeds what net growth implies.
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