Legal secretaries are one of the least happy careers in the United States.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, legal secretaries rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 12% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy legal secretaries are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Court reporter
3.0
$57k
Judicial law clerk
3.0
$51k
Probation officer
2.9
$60k
Customs inspector
2.9
$84k
Recruiter
2.7
$62k
Legal secretary
2.7
$48k
Paralegal
2.7
$56k
Compliance manager
2.7
$125k
Lawyer
2.6
$128k
Underwriter
2.5
$76k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are legal secretaries happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do legal secretaries find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as legal secretaries?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are legal secretary’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are legal secretaries making the best use of their abilities?

Are legal secretaries happy with their salary?

Legal secretaries rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most legal secretaries having generally positive views of their salary.

We asked legal secretaries how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

3.0 out of 5 stars

1478 legal secretaries

5 Star
12%

12% of legal secretaries rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
24%

24% of legal secretaries rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of legal secretaries rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
20%

20% of legal secretaries rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
15%

15% of legal secretaries rated their compensation 1 stars

Do legal secretaries find their jobs meaningful?

On average, legal secretaries rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.4/5. The majority of legal secretaries struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked legal secretaries how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.4 out of 5 stars

1484 legal secretaries

5 Star
7%

7% of legal secretaries rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
11%

11% of legal secretaries rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of legal secretaries rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
29%

29% of legal secretaries rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
30%

30% of legal secretaries rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as legal secretaries?

Legal secretaries rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.5/5. The majority of legal secretaries find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked legal secretaries how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.5 out of 5 stars

1597 legal secretaries

5 Star
22%

22% of legal secretaries rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
32%

32% of legal secretaries rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of legal secretaries rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
11%

11% of legal secretaries rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
8%

8% of legal secretaries rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a legal secretary’s work environment?

As a whole, legal secretaries rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked legal secretaries how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

1588 legal secretaries

5 Star
16%

16% of legal secretaries rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
29%

29% of legal secretaries rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of legal secretaries rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
17%

17% of legal secretaries rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
10%

10% of legal secretaries rated their work environment 1 stars

Are legal secretaries making the best use of their abilities?

Former legal secretaries on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.7/5. Legal secretaries tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked legal secretaries how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.7 out of 5 stars

1601 legal secretaries

5 Star
10%

10% of legal secretaries rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
16%

16% of legal secretaries rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of legal secretaries rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
27%

27% of legal secretaries rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
22%

22% of legal secretaries rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars