Legal assistant salary in Canada

The median legal assistant in Canada earns $27.47 an hour, about $57,100 a year full time, according to the Government of Canada's Job Bank. In Ontario the median is $26.44 an hour, about $55,000, and Alberta is highest among the provinces at $32.00 an hour.

Pay by province

Job Bank publishes hourly wages updated November 19, 2025, using a 2023–2024 reference period. We converted medians to annual figures at 2,080 hours a year (40 hours a week), so treat the annual column as an approximation. Source: Job Bank, legal administrative assistants (NOC 13111).

What affects a legal assistant's pay

• Employer size. Larger firms and corporate legal departments generally offer higher pay and more structured benefits than small offices.
• Practice area. Litigation, corporate, and real estate teams rely on deadline-driven document work.
• Language skills. English and French are both valuable in Ottawa, Montréal, and federal practices.
• Software. Experience with document management, e-filing, and billing systems makes you easier to hire.

Moving up to a law clerk role

Many legal assistants move into law clerk roles. Job Bank's Ontario median for paralegals and law clerks is $33.00 an hour, about $6.50 an hour more than for legal assistants. The usual route is a college law clerk program, experience in one practice area, or both. See our law clerk and paralegal salary guide.

When you apply, describe the documents you prepared and the systems you used, without overstating your role. Our legal assistant resume skills guide explains how.

How to read these numbers

Job Bank's figures are a useful baseline, but they have limits. Keep these points in mind when you compare them with a job posting or an offer.

• Low and high mark a typical range. They are not the minimum or maximum anyone earns. Experienced assistants in large firms can earn above the high figure.
• Titles vary. Employers use legal assistant, legal secretary, and legal administrative assistant for overlapping roles. Some postings with an assistant title involve work close to a law clerk role, and pay for those tends to be higher.
• Hours vary. Many legal assistant roles are salaried at 35 or 37.5 hours a week rather than 40, so the approximate annual column may overstate pay for those roles.
• Overtime and bonuses. Some firms pay overtime or annual bonuses to support staff, especially on busy litigation and transactional teams.

Questions to ask about an offer

• Is the role salaried or hourly, and what are the standard weekly hours?
• Is overtime paid, banked as time off, or included in the salary?
• What benefits start on day one, and is there a pension or RRSP match?
• Does the employer pay for training, such as a law clerk program or software courses?
• How are raises decided, and how often are they reviewed?

Asking these questions before you accept is normal and expected. The answers often explain why two postings with similar salaries feel very different once you start, and they give you a fair basis for comparing offers from a large firm, a small office, and an in-house legal team.