To think this salary is an insult?

Jesus Christ! I’m a library assistant, and whilst my job requires a lot of soft skills to do well, and I have specialised in a particular area, it does not require a degree or anything like the training of a solicitor, and I am on a better hourly rate than that! What a piss take.

My husband usually goes into a job hunt with a minimum salary and will tell headhunters/recruiters up front so no one’s time is wasted.

But surely you can live on this in a flatshare right? Outside of London living with someone reng may be around £500 a month. And then bills and then you still have some money after

Salaries at the moment make me wonder what the point is of higher education and further postgrad training. You could earn the same with no qualifications at all, having saved yourself thousands of pounds!

Unless it's 2 days a week then YANBU

I’m pretty sure DH started on more than that as a trainee over 20 years ago. Was definitely on way more than that as a NQ.

Never go through 5 rounds of interviews without knowing the ballpark salary

starting salary for admin staff at my work is £30k

That sounds about right to me, actually. If you’re saying that salary was about £80/81k, that sounds in line with other public sector salaries for that role.

Tbh sounds like a high street firm in SE, that's about the going rate for NQ.

My NQ job was £32k and that was TWENTY YEARS AGO. So no, you are not being unreasonable.

Is it one of those roles where this is the base rate and you're expected to bring in work for bonus, e.g. personal injury, no win no fee type of work.

Admin workers at my workplace get paid slightly more than that, and so they should, everyone needs a fair living wage.

And five rounds of interviews is ridiculous. I only apply for jobs where the salary range is transparent. It's so much time and effort to apply and interview etc.

I think I would refuse to do 5 rounds of interviews for a job where they refused to tell me what the salary range was. I don’t even like applying for roles that like but sometimes it’s unavoidable as it’s so widespread

We pay trainee accountants fresh out of uni about £28k regional rate but that comes with a training contract for chartered accountant and we literally don't see them for the first year and lots of study leave in years 2 and 3.

So yes that's a piss take of NQ solicitor. Unless criminal law.

Ha ha, true. Loads made redundant with pay offs. Nobody thought of a buffer for natural wastage and then a few months later when others are throwing the towel in and getting new jobs we now need to recruit.

My older brother ( he retired about 5 years ago, at the age of 58) was a solicitor. He worked for various small law firms starting as a Legal executive. Then after the recession in the 80’s hecthen ended up working for British Aerospace and he didn’t even go to Uni. As we were from a working class family but my dad’s job was quite well paid) but my brother started off almost like an apprentice , and was continuously taking exams and then had to spend a year at college) He was able to buy a one bedroom flat on his own, in West London at the age of 22, and wasn’t even fully qualified. Times are obviously very different now. My 31 year old daughter didn’t want to go to Uni, because she didn’t want to end up in debt ( as she’s a single parent to my only grandson/grandchild ) but went to college and started working in a PRU as a teaching assistant but gained so much experience there and she’s now a lead safeguarding officer, and works in a secondary school where salary’s are obviously quite low, but she earns just over
£ 32,000. To say that salary for a solicitor is an insult, is a total understatement after all your years studying. Yes it’s true, it does depend obviously where you work, but you’re worth far more than what they’re paying.

Tell them it'll be to be tripled or it's a no

It depends on the discipline: Business, Finance, Law, Computing, etc, there is a shortage. Humanities/Liberal Arts - thw bottom fell out post Covid. DS has gone abroad and was very lucky to find a post.

Abouy 30 years ago a friend of DH's interviewed at a solicitors firm just outside the Home Counties. When they offered they said "for someone with your experience, we can go up to £25k". His response was "how often?".

I hope you told them why you were saying no. Disgraceful wage for that post.

I think it should be the law that salaries must be included in any job advert though, saves wasting everyone's time.

That really is taking every last drop of piss and then asking for more. I know that one of my clients (I'm a solicitor too), recently hired a 1 year PQE to their in-house team in the (northern) regions for about £55k. That's at a household name financial services company that provides pretty bloody good fringe benefits too. You've got to be able to do better than sub-30k, unless you live in Thurso or somewhere like that.

It is ridiculously low, but the fact that that's their standard rate suggests their current staff do manage to survive on it. That doesn't mean it's right, but might highlight how bad the job market is in that area.

Honestly, I probably would have taken it for a year just to get some experience and then moved on to something better. Your first job post qualifying is always the hardest to get. My first 'proper' job out of uni was pretty much minimum wage but it allowed me to get my next job (only ringfenced candidates could apply), and so on...

Generally if the salary is stated as competitive on the job description then it’s going to be very low!

Jesus - yes it's an insult, and a massive red flag. In your case I'd be wondering if they're sexist and think they can get a woman on the cheap.

Even a lot of people in customer service or customer success positions get more than that.

I wonder if you applied to the firm I am just about to leave that starts with K. Shockingly low salaries that people can’t live on. I am paid more than this due to experience but NMW is standard for a very responsible role that can cost the firm a lot of money if something goes wrong. What is your specialism? The firm I am joining have been highly professional and it took 1 week from contact to offer. I’ve applied internally too and it took 7 weeks for a reply turning me down. Good luck!

I wouldnt even go for a first interview now unless I knew the salary range. It's not worth the time and effort