Paralegal salary in Australia vs an offshore paralegal

The paralegal salary in Australia sits around $69,940 a year at the median, based on Jobs and Skills Australia’s figure of $1,345 a week for full-time court and legal clerks, the group that includes law clerks. Add 12% super and the cost passes $78,000 before leave, insurance, equipment and any payroll tax. Tarino’s typical salary for a Philippines-based legal assistant or paralegal is about $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year. The trade-off is that an offshore paralegal can’t engage in legal practice, so the work runs under an Australian solicitor’s supervision.

This article compares the numbers and explains where the line sits. If you’ve already decided to hire and want the step-by-step process, read how to hire an offshore paralegal in Australia.

What is the average paralegal salary in Australia?

There’s no single official “paralegal” salary series. The closest government figure is the Jobs and Skills Australia profile for Court and Legal Clerks (ANZSCO 5992), checked 27 October 2026. It covers clerical and operational support to legal professionals, and its classification includes Law Clerks (ANZSCO 599214).

The profile reports:

• Median weekly earnings: $1,345, from the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025. It’s the median for full-time, non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, before tax.
• Workforce: 20,000 people, with a 39% part-time share and a median age of 29.

At $1,345 a week, the annual median is about $69,940.

Two cautions. First, JSA notes these ANZSCO-based pages won’t be updated again as it moves to new OSCA-based profiles, so treat the figure as a recent benchmark rather than live data. Second, it’s a median across a broad group. Pay for a senior paralegal in a specialist team, or in a capital city, can sit well away from it. Tarino’s own typical figure for an experienced Australian legal assistant is $95,000 a year.

Paralegal salary Australia: how the sources compare

Salary sites measure different things, so it helps to compare salaries side by side before you set a budget or a salary expectation. The government figure is a median of what people are actually paid. The private figures come from payroll data, self-reported salaries or job postings.

Source	What it measures	Figure
Jobs and Skills Australia, court and legal clerks	Median full-time weekly earnings, May 2025	$1,345 a week, about $69,940 per year
Employment Hero, paralegal	National median base salary, updated October 2026	$74,000 per year
Indeed, paralegal in Melbourne	Average from 23 reported salaries, updated 15 October 2026	$85,719 per year
SEEK, paralegal job ads in the legal industry	Average of salary ranges in job ads, October 2026	$69,817 per year
Payscale, paralegal (Melbourne research page)	Average base salary from 38 salary profiles, updated 25 June 2026	$60,119 per year

All figures are in AUD and checked 28 October 2026. Employment Hero’s figures are base salary only and exclude bonuses, super and other benefits. SEEK’s are based on salary ranges employers disclose in job ads, and some include super. That’s why the average salary for a paralegal can look more than $25,000 apart depending on where you look.

What is the salary range for a paralegal by experience?

Experience is a major driver of pay. Employment Hero’s October 2026 guide puts the typical paralegal salary range at $64,000 to $89,000, with these figures by level:

• Entry level or junior paralegal: $60,000 a year
• Mid career (mid level) paralegal: $73,000 a year
• Senior paralegal: $95,000 a year

A junior paralegal usually handles document preparation, filing and bundles. Mid career, the work moves to drafting from precedents and running parts of a matter. A senior paralegal often runs a caseload under a solicitor, supervises juniors and may record billable hours charged to clients. Practice area matters too: a paralegal in corporate law spends more time on transaction documents, while one in family law or litigation prepares affidavits, pleadings and court bundles.

If you hire law graduates or law students into a paralegal role, expect a lower salary at the start and plan for them to move on once they’re admitted.

How can a paralegal increase their salary?

Payscale’s paralegal salary research suggests three levers:

1. Change employers. Move to an employer willing to pay more for the same skills.
2. Gain further qualifications. Payscale notes that advanced degrees may increase income potential.
3. Take on supervision. Paralegals who oversee more junior paralegals are more likely to earn more.

For an employer, the same list explains why good paralegals leave. If you want to keep one, a clear path to more responsibility usually matters as much as the starting salary.

Where do paralegals earn the highest salaries?

Location also moves the figure. Employment Hero’s city figures for October 2026 are:

City	Typical paralegal salary
Sydney	$101,000
Perth	$86,000
Melbourne	$83,000
Brisbane	$83,000
Adelaide	$74,000

On SEEK, the average from paralegal job ads in Perth is $89,810, and some regional Western Australia regions advertise higher. In Victoria, Indeed’s Melbourne average is $85,719 with a reported range of $62,509 to $117,548. Sydney is the highest paying of the capital cities in Employment Hero’s data, and government employers sit near the top on SEEK, at an average of $78,998 for government and defence ads.

Employer matters as well. Indeed’s list of the highest paying companies for paralegals in Melbourne, based on its job postings over the past 36 months, is led by VicRoads at $94,943 and Corrs Chambers Westgarth at $89,167, followed by Melbourne Water at $84,401, Arts Centre Melbourne at $76,591, Slater and Gordon Lawyers at $70,027 and Shine Lawyers at $63,500.

Workforce data shows where the jobs are. JSA reports that 31.4% of court and legal clerks work in Victoria, 28.0% in New South Wales and 23.7% in Queensland.

What is the average salary for a paralegal in Perth?

Employment Hero puts the typical paralegal salary in Perth at $86,000, and SEEK’s average from Perth job ads is $89,810, both checked 28 October 2026.

What is the difference between a legal assistant and a paralegal in Australia?

Firms use the titles differently, so read the duties rather than the title. In general, a legal assistant or legal secretary focuses on the administrative side of a practice: diaries, correspondence, formatting and billing. A paralegal does more substantive matter work, such as legal research, drafting from precedents, document review and preparing material for courts, always under a solicitor’s supervision. Neither can give legal advice. Employment Hero’s median for a legal secretary is $74,000, the same as its paralegal median, which shows how much the roles overlap on pay.

How much does a law clerk make in Australia?

Law clerks sit inside the same JSA group as court clerks (Law Clerks, ANZSCO 599214), so the best official figure is the group median of $1,345 a week, or $35 an hour. JSA describes the work as including assisting solicitors with conveyancing, contracts, common law, probate and other legal practice matters. Because the group also includes court roles such as clerks of court and bailiffs, treat it as a guide: a law clerk in a private firm may be paid more or less than the median.

What is the average salary for a lawyer in Australia?

For comparison, JSA reports median full-time earnings for solicitors (ANZSCO 2713) of $2,070 a week, about $107,640 a year, or $56 an hour, from the same May 2025 ABS survey. Employment Hero’s median for a solicitor is $92,000. That gap explains why many firms hand process work to paralegals: lawyers’ time costs more, so work that doesn’t need a solicitor shouldn’t sit with one.

Is $130,000 a good salary in Australia? It’s well above the median. JSA’s figure for all occupations is $1,852 a week in full-time earnings, about $96,300 a year, so $130,000 is above what a typical full-time worker earns, and above the solicitor median.

What does a paralegal cost once you add on-costs?

Salary is only part of what your firm pays. For a local hire, the main additions are:

• Superannuation: 12% of ordinary time earnings, the rate the ATO lists from 1 July 2025.
• Payroll tax: only if your total Australian wages exceed your state’s threshold. In NSW, Revenue NSW lists a 5.45% rate and a $1.2 million annual threshold for 2025-26. Other states set their own.
• Leave: annual leave, personal leave and public holidays are paid days without output.
• Workers compensation insurance, equipment, software licences and office space.

On the median salary, super adds about $8,393, taking the cost to about $78,333. If your firm is over the NSW threshold, payroll tax on the salary adds up to about $3,812 more.

Paralegal salary in Australia vs an offshore paralegal

	Local paralegal (JSA median)	Local paralegal (Tarino’s typical figure)	Offshore paralegal, direct hire
Base salary	$69,940	$95,000	$18,000 ($1,500 a month, Tarino’s typical figure)
Super at 12%	$8,393	$11,400	Generally not applicable*
Recruitment	Varies	Varies	$5,000 excl. GST, once, through Tarino
Year-one total before other on-costs	About $78,333	About $106,400	About $23,000

*Australian super generally doesn’t apply to a Philippine resident working in the Philippines under a local arrangement. Our guide to super for offshore staff explains why, and what the Philippine side involves, including 13th month pay and statutory contributions. Budget for those, plus a laptop and software licences.

If you go through a managed offshore agency instead, you’ll also pay a monthly fee for as long as the person stays. One published rate is A$1,099 per person per month plus A$1,200 per hire, which is $14,388 in year one on top of the salary. Run your own figures in the cost calculator.

What can an offshore paralegal do?

A good offshore paralegal takes on the process-heavy work that fills a junior’s week. Typical tasks, as covered on our legal assistant role page, include:

• Opening matters, running conflict-check requests and setting up files in your practice management system
• Recording key dates and maintaining matter calendars
• Preparing first drafts of letters and documents from your approved precedents
• Proofreading, formatting and checking cross-references before solicitor review
• Ordering searches and certificates
• Indexing documents, building chronologies and preparing court or tribunal bundles
• Keeping time records and preparing draft invoices

Look for candidates who have worked with Australian firms or precedents and know your practice management software. Practical assessment is part of Tarino’s screening, so finalists have already done a role-specific task, such as building a chronology from a document set.

What can’t an offshore paralegal do?

They can’t practise law. The Law Society of NSW explains that section 10 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law prohibits the practice of law in NSW by unqualified entities. Qualified entities include Australian legal practitioners holding a current practising certificate and law practices. Unqualified legal practice carries penalties that include fines and up to two years’ imprisonment. Other states and territories either apply the Uniform Law or have their own legal profession legislation, so check the rules where you practise.

In practice, keep these with your solicitors:

• Giving legal advice, or telling a client what they should do
• Settling and signing documents and correspondence that go out under the firm’s name
• Appearing for clients or negotiating on their behalf
• Final sign-off on anything filed with a court or registry

Write that list into the role description, and give your paralegal a simple rule: if a client asks what they should do, the question goes to the solicitor.

This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your firm’s position with your law society or a legal practice adviser.

How should you supervise an offshore paralegal?

Rule 37 of the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules says a solicitor with designated responsibility for a matter must exercise reasonable supervision over solicitors and all other employees engaged in providing the legal services for that matter. Location doesn’t change that, so build supervision into the workflow:

• Name the supervising solicitor on every matter the paralegal works on.
• Review before anything leaves the firm. Drafts go to the solicitor, not straight to the client or the other side.
• Use your systems. Your paralegal works inside your practice management software under their own login, so every action is recorded.
• Hold a short daily check-in. The Philippines is two hours behind AEST, so your paralegal can work your hours and join the morning stand-up.

Client files contain personal information, so privacy matters too. The OAIC’s APP 8 guidelines explain your obligations when personal information goes overseas. Keeping files in your own systems, under logins you control, makes this simpler. The law firms industry page covers the roles and software firms usually start with.

How does Tarino help law firms hire?

Tarino recruits, and your firm hires and pays the paralegal directly. We build a pool of 1,000+ candidates per role, screen them through CV checks, video screening, a practical assessment and a structured interview, and send you 3 to 4 finalists, typically within about 2 weeks.

Our fee is $250 upfront plus $4,750 when you hire, $5,000 excl. GST in total, with the $250 credited back when you hire. There are no monthly fees. Each placement includes 6-month replacement cover for the same role. If you’d rather not run Philippine payroll, Tarino EOR handles the contract and payroll for $387 per employee per month. See pricing, or book a 30-minute call to talk through which work to hand off first.