Paralegals and Legal Assistants salary in Iowa
SOC 23-2011 · BLS OEWS May 2025
How local pay compares
After local prices: the $54,550 median has purchasing power comparable to about $62,157 nationally. Iowa's BEA regional price parity is 87.8 (2024).
What the local range looks like
The wash spans the 10th to 90th percentile, the darker section is the middle half, and the tick is the median for Iowa.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter
- Associate's degree
- Related work experience
- None
- On-the-job training
- None
Narrow to a metro in Iowa
Every linked area below has a published estimate for paralegals and legal assistants. Missing areas were withheld by BLS rather than measured at zero.
The median wage as published, before local prices are taken into account.
| # | Metro area | Median | Cost of living | Employed | Concentrationvs. national |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa City, IA | $66,400 | 91.5 | 330 | 1.40× |
| 2 | Omaha, NE-IA | $64,230 | 91.9 | 1,010 | 0.80× |
| 3 | Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | $60,080 | 91.7 | 1,190 | 1.16× |
| 4 | Cedar Rapids, IA | $57,420 | 89.0 | 310 | 0.88× |
| 5 | Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL | $57,030 | 89.1 | 280 | 0.61× |
| 6 | Sioux City, IA-NE-SD | $56,100 | 86.5 | 80 | 0.43× |
| 7 | Dubuque, IA | $55,740 | 87.3 | 80 | 0.51× |
| 8 | Ames, IA | $53,180 | 88.8 | 60 | 0.40× |
| 9 | Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA | $48,030 | 87.1 | 120 | 0.54× |
Cost of living is the BEA regional price parity for all items, where 100 is the national average. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: how much more of the local workforce does this job than the national average, so 2.00× means twice the national share. It is often the reason wages differ — a place that concentrates an occupation has the employers and the competition for it. Metro areas where paralegals and legal assistants wages are suppressed by BLS for confidentiality are omitted.
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