How Much Do You Spend on Work Clothes?

How much do you spend on work clothes — as in, what is your budget per piece of work clothing? What's the average price you're happy to pay for a pair of pants — a blazer — a lady jacket? How much do you spend on trendier items like wide leg pants, barrel pants, etc?

We've talked a lot about budgets for work clothes, including rounding up a wide price range for our wardrobe essentials for work and our Hunts, how to determine if an item of clothing is worth the price (aka, fashion math), how to stop shopping, the most affordable office clothes for women, how to build a work wardrobe with no money, and more. We've also rounded up our favorite low-cost clothing basics, the best place to buy work clothes on a budget, picked the most affordable work clothes, talked about how to shop your closet, and discussed the pros and cons of thrifting for workwear.

How Much Do You Spend on Work Clothes?

As far as I can remember, we've had this discussion twice before — once in 2009, and once in 2018… here are my current thoughts for 2025. (Is it just me or are all of the extreme $11/pants deals all in the distant past?)

Pants: $80–$350. You may be lucky to find a pair of pants below $80, on sale, at one of the mall stores, but I feel like that is rarer and rarer these days. If you're open to shopping at Amazon, these reader favorites are usually under $50, and this pair of Lee's is even more affordable — but sizing and quality can be hit or miss.

Blouses/tops: $25–$75, or $125–$350. I'm putting two price ranges here because I think the first price range is the “normal” price I'd pay for a blouse or top for work, and the second price range would be the “I really, really like that one” price — where the blouse has an absolutely amazing pattern or is from a designer I've wanted for eons or something special. I've definitely seen them for more than $250 but probably wouldn't pay that for a simple blouse. (Everyone's favorite NYDJ blouse is often down to around $50… but today it's even lower in the early Black Friday deals that Nordstrom is having.)

Sweaters: $75–$400. Personally, this is where a lot of my money goes — I've always preferred cashmere or merino or blends because they're soft, durable, and pretty warm, whereas a lot of the more affordable cotton blends I've had haven't done any of those things. I still have a lot of easy care sweatshirts from when my kids were small, but even that price range has gone up — instead of paying $15 for a ho-hum sweatshirt at Old Navy I'd rather spend $75+ on a nicer sweatshirt from Athleta or Sweaty Betty. (Also remember that because I've been building a sweater collection for years now, I can afford to stalk nicer sweaters on sale, so that helps. I know readers often talk about getting great deals on sweaters bought from resale sites, but I haven't gotten into that too much, yet!) Here's our last roundups of some of our favorite sweaters, from cashmere to 100% cotton to great cardigans and sweater blazers.

Dresses: $40–$350. The problem here is that the quintessential “work dress” feels a bit undefined at the moment — more flowy fabrics and midi-skirts are trendy, with sheath dresses more or less out of style at the moment. At this moment I'd probably only buy a work dress for myself if I really, really loved it.

Skirts: $50–$300. This is sort of the same problem as above — there are a lot of know-your-office skirts that are trendy right now, so this isn't really a place I'd spend my money… unless I really loved it.

Suits: $300–$1000. Something I was surprised at when we did our last roundup of the best women suits was how the average price seems to have somewhat fallen — the first two categories were below $500 and there are a TON of options in there. (And honestly most of the suits in the next category, the $500–$1000 one, often go on sale so you can pick up a suit for under $500.)

Bags: I'm always fascinated to see how this is a hugely social decision — most women I know stick to a pretty narrow price range that their friends and family also buy in. Personally, I still tend to think of a “good” bag as costing between $500–$1000 when new, but I've gotten some great deals on bags that I consider myself lucky. I also have quite a few bags, as I've been collecting them for years, so these days I'm more likely to splurge on something I really want rather than buy something more affordable. Here's our last roundup of the bags that I (and the readers) love.

Jewelry: $20–$200 for a “spur of the moment” purchase, $150+++ for a planned purchase… although most of the time I give my husband a list of potential jewelry pieces I'd like (usually from resale sites, but sometimes from Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom) and let him pick a few pre-approved pieces for Christmas/birthday. I have a lot of regret over the semi-precious and precious “good” jewelry I bought in my 20s at places like Macy's — 98% of it never sees the light of day, but is worth next to nothing on the resale market.

How about you guys: How much do you spend on clothes for work? What's the average price for you for specific items of clothing?

Stock photo via Deposit Photos / olesia bilkei.

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