SaaS Salary Benchmarks

Legal Counsel Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the Legal Counsel role at US SaaS companies, based on 17 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdownAll SaaS roles
Base salary · US SaaS17 salaries
$36,000
Median base salary
Bottom 25% avg$17,400Top 25% avg$63,768
Average base salary
$39,940
Typical range (P25–P75)
$24,000–$63,768
Salaries analyzed
17

Hiring for this role? At the median, one Legal Counsel costs $36,000 a year in base salary.

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Overview
17 salaries

Legal Counsel Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageAverage of the lowest-paid quarter · 2 salaries
$17,400
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 10 salaries
$32,535
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 5 salaries
$63,768

Median Legal Counsel base pay by pay period

Per year
$36,000
Per month
$3,000
Every two weeks
$1,385
Per hour
$17.31
Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

Legal Counsel salaries at SaaS companies average $39,940, with typical salaries ranging from $24,000 to $63,768. Based on 17 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands
Employees · annualized base

Detailed Legal Counsel Compensation Breakdown

Legal Counsel base salary by percentile band
Percentile BandSalary rangeAverage Base Salary# of salaries
Top 25%$63,768 and up$63,7685 salaries
Middle 50%$24,000–$63,768$32,53510 salaries
Bottom 25%Under $24,000$17,4002 salaries
Hiring budget
Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a Legal Counsel Cost to Hire?

Budget for Legal Counsel hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level
Hires
1

One Legal Counsel hire at the median: $36,000 a year in base salary, $45,000–$50,400 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hireP25MedianP75
Base salary / year$24,000$36,000$63,768
Base salary / month$2,000$3,000$5,314
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base$30,000–$33,600$45,000–$50,400$79,710–$89,275
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base$2,500–$2,800$3,750–$4,200$6,643–$7,440
Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

Legal Counsel Pay by the Numbers

  • The middle half of Legal Counsel salaries spans $24,000–$63,768: a $39,768 spread, 110% of the $36,000 median.
  • A 75th-percentile Legal Counsel earns 2.7× the 25th-percentile salary.
  • The Legal Counsel median is 49% below the median Operations, Finance & People role ($70,000 across 115 roles).

What Drives Higher Legal Counsel Pay?

  • Years of experience and proven track record
  • Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
  • Technical expertise and specialization
  • Location and remote work policies
FAQ
Legal Counsel salary

On a median base salary of $36,000, a Legal Counsel at a US SaaS company makes about $3,000 a month, $1,385 every two weeks, or $17.31 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $2,000–$5,314 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 17 verified SaaS Legal Counsel salaries, the 25th percentile is $24,000 and the median is $36,000. A Legal Counsel at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $63,768 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $36,000, the fully loaded cost of a US Legal Counsel is roughly $45,000–$50,400 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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