Occupation / job
Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
A midpoint of $75,530 against $50,020 means Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators pays $2,125 a month more than the typical American job. At that distance the entry requirement is the real subject, because it is what the premium is buying.
9,210 people work as Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators. That is enough for a functioning national market and not enough for a functioning local one — in most metros this is a few employers rather than a field you can move around inside.
Legal practice suits people who read closely, argue in writing, and can live with an adversarial structure where someone competent is paid to defeat them.
No verified preparation time is on file for Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$50,640 separates the bottom quarter of Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators at $57,360 from the top quarter at $108,000. At a 1.9x ratio the midpoint is a weak guide to your own first year — find out which end you would be entering at.
The bottom quarter of Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators earns $57,360 or more — $7,340 clear of the $50,020 national midpoint. Three quarters of the field is well paid and the last quarter is still paid better than most of the country.
Avoid it if the adversarial format is draining rather than energising; the hours are long and the format does not soften.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 9,210 people employed as Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
At 1.9x, the distribution for Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators is open enough that specialisation starts to pay. The distance from $57,360 to $108,000 is mostly what you can do that others in the same title cannot.
In cash terms the middle half of Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators runs $57,360 to $108,000 — $50,640 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $75,530.
Between $57,360 and $108,000 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $75,530. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $32,470; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $50,640.
It is $18,170 from $75,530 down to $57,360 but $32,470 up to $108,000. When a range leans this far upward, the interesting question is what puts someone in the top half, because the money is disproportionately there.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $36.31 at the midpoint for Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators, $27.57 at the 25th percentile and $51.92 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
The $75,530 figure is what employers pay employees. It is before tax and before deductions, it excludes the self-employed entirely, and it says nothing about anyone who does this work on their own account.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators, the hourly figure is $75,530 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else