---
title: "Arbitrator, Mediator, and Conciliator"
description: "Facilitate negotiation and conflict resolution through dialogue. Resolve conflicts outside of the court system by mutual consent of parties involved."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/arbitrator-mediator-and-conciliator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Arbitrator, Mediator, and Conciliator

**Category:** Legal · **SOC code:** 23-1022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 23-1022.00

Facilitate negotiation and conflict resolution through dialogue. Resolve conflicts outside of the court system by mutual consent of parties involved.

Also advertised as: Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator (ADR Coordinator); Arbiter; Arbitrator; Divorce Mediator; Family Mediator; Federal Mediator; Labor Arbitrator; Labor Mediator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $75,530 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.31/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,220 to $155,440, with the middle half between $57,360 and $108,000
- **Total US employment:** 9,210
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 16/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 9,210 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $47,220 |
| 25th | $57,360 |
| 50th (median) | $75,530 |
| 75th | $108,000 |
| 90th | $155,440 |
| Mean (average) | $91,010 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IL | $162,410 | $162,478 | 80 |
| DC | $110,300 | $100,363 | 150 |
| NM | $110,180 | $119,486 | 40 |
| CA | $97,680 | $88,223 | Not published by BLS |
| CO | $82,590 | $80,144 | 30 |
| AZ | $82,150 | $81,598 | 160 |
| VA | $79,530 | $78,662 | 120 |
| AL | $76,810 | $86,475 | 40 |
| MI | $76,270 | $79,269 | 190 |
| NC | $75,320 | $79,851 | 100 |
| NY | $70,800 | $65,604 | 1,050 |
| OH | $68,790 | $74,148 | 130 |
| PA | $67,890 | $69,579 | 310 |
| MT | $64,980 | $68,657 | 40 |
| KS | $64,970 | $72,134 | 40 |

9 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 24 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/arbitrator-mediator-and-conciliator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/arbitrator-mediator-and-conciliator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 11,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 500 jobs, or +4.7%. Faster than average: 4.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| First Professional Degree | 36.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 15.8% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 10.5% |
| Master's Degree | 10.5% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 10.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 5.3% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare written opinions or decisions regarding cases.
- Apply relevant laws, regulations, policies, or precedents to reach conclusions.
- Conduct hearings to obtain information or evidence relative to disposition of claims.
- Rule on exceptions, motions, or admissibility of evidence.
- Confer with disputants to clarify issues, identify underlying concerns, and develop an understanding of their respective needs and interests.
- Conduct initial meetings with disputants to outline the arbitration process, settle procedural matters, such as fees, or determine details, such as witness numbers or time requirements.
- Use mediation techniques to facilitate communication between disputants, to further parties' understanding of different perspectives, and to guide parties toward mutual agreement.
- Issue subpoenas or administer oaths to prepare for formal hearings.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Negotiation — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 4.63 |
| C — Conventional | 4.33 |
| S — Social | 4.24 |
| I — Investigative | 3.61 |
| A — Artistic | 2.25 |
| R — Realistic | 1.12 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 74.6 |
| ENFJ | 73.2 |
| ESTJ | 64.2 |
| ENTJ | 63.4 |
| ESFP | 57.4 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ENFJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Administrative Law Judge, Adjudicator, and Hearing Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-law-judge-adjudicator-and-hearing-officer) — median $117,860
- [Lawyer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lawyer) — median $159,670
- [Labor Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/labor-relations-specialist) — median $95,420
- [Judicial Law Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/judicial-law-clerk) — median $64,920
- [Judge](https://nuecareer.com/careers/judge) — median $153,990
- [Equal Opportunity Representative and Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/equal-opportunity-representative-and-officer) — median $80,730
- [Claims Adjuster, Examiner, and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/claims-adjuster-examiner-and-investigator) — median $78,000
- [School Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-social-worker) — median $59,550
- [Fraud Examiner, Investigator and Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fraud-examiner-investigator-and-analyst) — median $81,100
- [Financial Examiner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner) — median $94,160

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/arbitrator-mediator-and-conciliator