Paralegals vs Plumbers
Plumbers earns $910 more at the middle. Every figure is US government data you can check.
| Paralegals | Plumbers | |
|---|---|---|
| Pay in the middle median annual wage, May 2025 | $62,890 | $63,800 |
| Pay range 10th to 90th percentile | $44,740 to $101,500 | $44,150 to $108,420 |
| Years of school you pay for our own estimate from published entry requirements, not a BLS figure | 2 | 0 |
| Typical entry education | Associate's degree | High school diploma or equivalent |
| Jobs opening up each year | 40,800 | 42,000 |
| Growth by 2035 | -0.3% | 6.8% |
| People doing it now | 404,900 | 510,600 |
| Where the pay is highest and lowest state medians, not adjusted for cost of living or taxes | $89,750 in Washington DC down to $46,180 in Mississippi | $101,020 in Washington DC down to $48,660 in Arkansas |
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Jobs that use what you already know
Same skills, same knowledge, same daily tasks. Most of these are not on this site.
Paralegals
- Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants
- Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers
- Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners
- Court, Municipal, and License Clerks
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
- Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
What these usually take: A trade school course, an associate's degree, or one to two years on the job.
Plumbers
- Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters
- Boilermakers
- Pipelayers
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
- Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
- Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door
What these usually take: A trade school course, an associate's degree, or one to two years on the job.
O*NET 30.3 Database, U.S. Department of Labor. These are jobs that use similar skills, knowledge and daily tasks. It is a measure of how alike two jobs are — not a record of people moving between them.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage data, May 2025, and employment projections 2025-35. Years of school is our own estimate from published entry requirements, not a BLS figure. State medians are not adjusted for cost of living or taxes, and that difference could be large either way. No advice, just data.