Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5411

NAICS 5411 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Legal Services - Industry Benchmarks

$120,985/yr average annual pay, with 4,514 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5411.

10.4%
Net margin
1.2M
Workers employed
$120,985/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$2.0B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 5411

Legal Services runs a 10.4% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 181K establishments employing 1.2M workers.

10.4%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
1.2M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$120,985/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$2.0B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Legal Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Legal Services is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.

Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023

Benchmarking Insights for Legal Services

Legal Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 10.4% net margin (in line with the national median), $106.8B in aggregate receipts across 120,096 returns, averaging $888.9M per establishment.

181,092 establishments employ 1,190,297 workers (6.6/location) at $120,985/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Florida.

Profit Margin

10.4%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$106.8B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$11.1B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

1,190,297

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$120,985/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

181,092

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 6,704; establishment count decreased by 849. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Legal Services revenue goes

Workforce scale

Legal Services margin vs national reference points

Legal Services net margin 34.7%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%

Business Structure Breakdown

Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).

C Corporation SOI 2013
120,096 returns

Margin: 10.4% · Receipts: $106.8B

Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
319,226 returns

Margin: 46.1% · Receipts: $40.9B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
120,096
Avg Receipts per Business
$888.9M
Annual Payroll (Total)
$144.0B
Avg Employees per Establishment
6.6

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Offices of Lawyers

NAICS 54111

 N/A
Other Legal Services

NAICS 54119

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 157,775
New York 120,764
Florida 106,351
Texas 98,453
Illinois 55,015
Pennsylvania 47,444
Georgia 37,716
New Jersey 35,247
District of Columbia 31,599
Ohio 30,698

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

4,514

Total Loan Volume

$2.0B

Avg Loan Size

$434K

Jobs Supported

26,986

Program Breakdown

7(a) 3,501 (78%)
504 1,013 (22%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

205 loans in this industry

New Business Share

18.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
595
2021
791
2022
710
2023
644
2024
814
2025
827
2026
133

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Legal Services?
$106.8B in total annual receipts across all Legal Services businesses. Average per business: $888.9M.
How profitable is Legal Services?
10.4% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Legal Services?
181,092 business establishments. Together they employ 1,190,297 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Legal Services?
$120,985/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Legal Services employment?
California leads with 157,775 workers. New York (120,764) and Florida (106,351) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Legal Services receive?
Legal Services businesses received 4,514 SBA loans totaling $2.0 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $434K. These loans supported 26,986 jobs at origination. Most lending (78%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Legal Services ranks #26 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #14 of 126 at that same detail level.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Legal Services

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 5411 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.