Lawyers’ Wages Grew Slower Than Inflation, ABA Profile Reveals
The American Bar Association’s first annual profile of the legal profession shows that lawyers’ income grew slower than inflation from 2017 to 2018.
The average lawyer’s salary rose 1.6 percent, which is a little lower than the 2.1 percent rate of inflation for the same period, reports Bloomberg Law in a summary of the ABA profile.
The report found that the average lawyer earned $144,230 last year, making less than dentists, who earned $180,590 on average, but more than physicists, who made $125,280, according to the Bloomberg summary by Melissa Heelan Stanzione.
The study also revealed the pervasiveness of stress, anxiety, and substance abuse in the profession. “Recent studies show that lawyers struggle with these problems at levels substantially higher than the general population and other highly educated professionals,” the ABA report said.
Read the Bloomberg Law article.