It’s a common refrain that law salaries for new grads are bi-modal, with a large percentage of law graduates going into Big Law. The NALP even publishes data that shows a double humped distribution of salaries every year. But a quick query of freely available American Communities Survey data (collected by the US Government) shows that there is a small hump in the same spot that the NALP survey reports. But NALP shows nearly 21% of graduates with income around $185k / year and it looks like roughly 26%+ are earning at least $160k which looks to be a huge overstatement. This is what I found:

Only 16% Reported Income Near that Range

• Mean : $91,798 / year
• Median : $75,000 / year
• 25th Percentile : $51,771 / year
• 75th Percentile : $119,976 / year

I have read comments questioning some of the data collection methods that NALP uses, and I think that this single slice of data definitely shows that there is an odd deviation from the results I derived from the ACS. If anything my data should skew higher, because I could not separate people with only 1 year of experience out. So there would be associates with in Big Law with multiple years of raises and experience in this data set. An interesting overlap is that the NALP’s adjusted mean is slightly below the mean salary that I have calculated, which is interesting as to how close it is.

Methodology

• ACS 5 Year 2013-2017 Micro-data
• Industry : Legal services so this would be limited to law firms specifically.
• Ages 25-28 to try to capture new grads specifically with at least one year of work, there was no way to restrict years of experience.
• Occupation : Lawyers, and judges, magistrates, and other judicial workers (This was the lowest level, I could separate it at, but I doubt there are a lot of Judges/Magistrates/Other in this age range)
• Education: Professional degree beyond a bachelor’s degree (Could not be more specific)
• Weeks worked prior year: >40+ weeks / year (to try to exclude people who were reporting income from partial year internships/clerkships)
• Hours Worked in a usual Week : >35+ hours / week (to try to get only full time)
• Currently Employed

I’ve decided to retire the old Shnugi name after 15 years of using this to host my data analysis tools. Although I will continue to use it as my username. I don’t know if I’ve gotten all the links updated, but it seems like everything is working after the migration. Please let me know if you find any broken images, links or pages.

I haven’t really been doing a lot of personal blogging, and I thought it would be more fitting to have a more descriptive name, since most people aren’t here to read about me but to find out things about themselves.

New calculator

The newest calculator is a housing percentile to compare your housing costs nationally. Make sure to include your utility costs and fixed fees like HOA.

Marginal Tax Bracket
Select the appropriate marginal tax rate matches your income. For example if on your taxes you report $100k in adjusted gross income (AGI) as a single filer, pick the 24% option, because you make at least $84k but less than $160k.
37% Single $510k; Married $612k; Head of Household $510k 35% Single $203k; Married $408k; Head of Household $204k 32% Single $160k; Married $321k; Head of Household $160k 24% Single $84k; Married $168k; Head of Household $84k 22% Single $39k; Married $79k; Head of Household $53k 12% Single $9.7k; Married $19k; Head of Household $14k 10% Single $0; Married $0; Head of Household $0

Monthly Commuter Contribution ($270 max/month)

How does this work?

The Pre-Tax commuter benefit works exempts up to $270 per month from Federal income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. This money can only be spent on eligible travel to work expenses such as public transit passes (commuter trains/buses/vanpool), parking at your employer, or ride-share (Uber Pool/Lyft Line). In general, your employer will partner with another company who will provide the passes and payment cards. This has been increased from $265 per month from 2019.

So imagine that if you earn $70,000 a year in Texas, and pay $200 per month in eligible parking fees at your workplace:

Before Pre-Tax Benefit

• Monthly Income: $5,833
• Taxable Income: $5,833
• Total Federal Taxes: $1,238
• Parking Pass Using Your Credit Card : $200
• Amount left over : $4,395

After Pre-Tax Benefit

• Monthly Income: $ 5,833
• Parking Pass Using Pre-Tax Commuter Benefit: $200
• Taxable Income: $5,633
• Total Federal Taxes: $ 1,194
• Amount left over : $4,439

Savings of $44 / month or $528 / year!

Sure this isn’t a ton of money. But if you’re already auto-paying for public transit passes, ride share (Uber, Lyft), or parking every month to get to work, this is a quick an easy way to save some money with minimal effort. The only downside is that you employer must have an account set up with a benefits provider to allow you to take the deduction.

This calculator is for illustration only, and the tax brackets and contribution limits will likely shift in coming years. Some states will also deduct Pre-Tax Commuter benefits from their state and local taxes so your savings could be even bigger! If your income is right at the border of the break point of one of the marginal tax brackets, your actual savings will vary a little bit. Just something to keep in mind. For more information, the IRS has a very long PDF with all the details
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15b.pdf .

One weird thing about the benefit is that your employer may or may not list the benefit in Box 14 of your W2. So I’m not sure how the government tracks how compliant you are with you spending or contributions or if there’s a difference if you have multiple jobs. It seems like there’s a lot of trust in the companies that administer the benefit to do it correctly.