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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this salary is an insult?

345 replies

FlyingSolo16 · 26/10/2025 11:38

I’m a solicitor and recently interviewed for a position. Five rounds of interview, meetings with different people within the firm, etc etc.

Get to the offer stage and the “competitive salary” they’re offering was £27,500 a year. AIBU or is that an insult?

OP posts:
whatsit84 · 26/10/2025 14:43

yep ridículous. Assume you are qualified and it’s not a trainee position? What’s your current salary?

Kendodd · 26/10/2025 14:41

Oh, and if try to tax the millionaires at the top hoarding all the profits, they say they'll just leave the country.
This is the world we've made.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 26/10/2025 14:39

BIossomtoes · 26/10/2025 12:31

That’s comparing apples and pears. Solicitors tend not to have the opportunity to kill people.

Ah, but to be fair, they more than likely know a man who can.

Kendodd · 26/10/2025 14:38

Thing is, they need to pay the staff that do all the work low wages otherwise the person at the top wouldn't be able to rake in millions for themselves.

Moonboots123 · 26/10/2025 14:37

Where do you live OP? I’m a private client paralegal in a city - not London. Salary 42k a year plus large bonus. I don’t even have a degree in law!

Handrearedmagpie · 26/10/2025 14:35

Jeeso! We start our graduate social workers on £46,000 and are miles from London!

Nottodaythankyou123 · 26/10/2025 14:35

Cucy · 26/10/2025 14:29

I’m wondering whether to point my DC in the direction/opposite direction of some careers.

It used to be that it was worth training for so many years to get a good career. Now a lot of those just aren’t worth it.

Im a lawyer in a small ish firm on a decent ish wage for my NQ level, my DP has a trade - he out earns me by a mile. I’d defo encourage my children to think outside of traditional careers (also he won’t be replaced by AI 😅)

Baninarama · 26/10/2025 14:34

mindutopia · 26/10/2025 14:26

I saw a job post the other day for a lecturer role (PhD required). Admittedly, it was for 17.5 hours a week, but in those hours (2.5 days?), you were expected to teach and administer 3 courses per year, supervise master’s and PhD students, have personal tutees, contribute to marking (other courses in addition to your own) and be the head of an entire postgraduate programme. The salary? £22k!

I nearly fell out of bed laughing. Dh, who is not an academic and has no idea what half of that even means, was equally appalled. Firstly, there is no way that anyone could fulfil the job role and do all of that in 2.5 7-hour days per week. What they expect is that you will work far more than your contracted hours, but they’ll still only pay you £22k a year because that’s your pro rata salary. There’s no overtime in higher ed.

Dh employs a team of welders in his business who have no university qualifications and they make £30k+ plus they get a half day every Friday, lots of food and drink in a stocked kitchen. They get a weekend away on the company for the Christmas do every year. The last Christmas party I went to for work (I worked for one of the one most expensive universities in the UK), we had Lidl juice boxes and some sandwiches in the seminar room. 😩

Edited

That is an absolute laugh. One of my children is doing an MSc in London and gets paid £22 an hour to help out undergrads. Okay, it's only a few hours a week but it works out at twice that and he doesn't have a PhD. Make it make sense!

Nottodaythankyou123 · 26/10/2025 14:34

Zov · 26/10/2025 12:50

You don't say how long you've been doing it/how long it is since you qualified @FlyingSolo16 If you're just starting out, and it's outside London, £27,500 a year sounds about right.

Edited

Our firm is pretty small, not in a city and pays NQas £38,500. I don’t think £27500 sounds about right at all!

Cucy · 26/10/2025 14:29

I’m wondering whether to point my DC in the direction/opposite direction of some careers.

It used to be that it was worth training for so many years to get a good career. Now a lot of those just aren’t worth it.

DickDewey · 26/10/2025 14:29

That’s insulting. In my team, admin posts (unskilled) start at 28k.

mindutopia · 26/10/2025 14:26

I saw a job post the other day for a lecturer role (PhD required). Admittedly, it was for 17.5 hours a week, but in those hours (2.5 days?), you were expected to teach and administer 3 courses per year, supervise master’s and PhD students, have personal tutees, contribute to marking (other courses in addition to your own) and be the head of an entire postgraduate programme. The salary? £22k!

I nearly fell out of bed laughing. Dh, who is not an academic and has no idea what half of that even means, was equally appalled. Firstly, there is no way that anyone could fulfil the job role and do all of that in 2.5 7-hour days per week. What they expect is that you will work far more than your contracted hours, but they’ll still only pay you £22k a year because that’s your pro rata salary. There’s no overtime in higher ed.

Dh employs a team of welders in his business who have no university qualifications and they make £30k+ plus they get a half day every Friday, lots of food and drink in a stocked kitchen. They get a weekend away on the company for the Christmas do every year. The last Christmas party I went to for work (I worked for one of the one most expensive universities in the UK), we had Lidl juice boxes and some sandwiches in the seminar room. 😩

NET145 · 26/10/2025 14:23

Are there decent bonuses, what’s the general location etc? It MIGHT be soft of reasonable but sounds low

Pennyfan · 26/10/2025 14:19

That’s shocking. My dd did law but although she enjoyed the degree found out that contrary to what people think, it doesn’t pay that much. She went into sales instead. No exams to pass and money is pretty good for a woman in her 20s-50k at the moment and expected to rise.

Cucy · 26/10/2025 14:18

FlyingSolo16 · 26/10/2025 12:22

i think full time teaching roles start at around £33k? I might be mistaken there. I considered a pivot to teaching but I like my annual leave too much 😂

The newly qualified teachers tend to start on £28k but that should rise to £32k once they’ve been there a year.

That’s only been within the past 5 years it’s been that high to try and recruit and retain teachers.

I think most sectors start on around £28k.

I’ve just finished a masters degree and silly me did not think to check the starting salary and I am shocked by how little it is.
I feel like I’ve wasted time and money by doing it.

Now I have to decide whether to drop £8k+ a year and start from the bottom and work my way up, which in 10 years time could see me making decent money (no more than £70k a year though) or stay where I am and climb that way but my max salary would be about £50k but could get there quicker.

intrepidpanda · 26/10/2025 14:17

Family standard graduate wage but if you have experience i would expect 30k, a lot of experience then 35k or above

WutheringTights · 26/10/2025 14:17

FlyingSolo16 · 26/10/2025 13:54

its just sickening. It’s gone from going to uni, working hard and making a career in order to buy a house, and having a family, to doing the same thing for a flat share with multiple other people. What’s the point

I agree. I started as a trainee accountant fresh out of university 30 years ago and earned £19,500, which rose to somewhere around £32/33k after three years when I qualified . I lived in a flat share for the first three years to save for a house deposit and bought a house once I’d qualified. Law is a comparable profession. The fact that salaries haven’t gone up in 30 years while house prices have more than doubled is disgraceful and why so many young people are so disillusioned with life in this country.

7yeardraughtmustchangesoon · 26/10/2025 14:17

FlyingSolo16 · 26/10/2025 11:38

I’m a solicitor and recently interviewed for a position. Five rounds of interview, meetings with different people within the firm, etc etc.

Get to the offer stage and the “competitive salary” they’re offering was £27,500 a year. AIBU or is that an insult?

Bloody hell. I know I'm based in London but I bagged an entry level research role (consultancy, small firm) straight out of uni (though had had admin roles before) at £25k in 2000!!!

TattooStan · 26/10/2025 14:16

I think what's always shocking is how wages have stagnated for DECADES now.
DH and I graduated in 2006 and didn't get "graduate" jobs - we just got any old job each to enable us to get a rental contract on a flat.
I got an admin job, which was an absolute piss around, for £17k. And DH got a bit of a sales rep role on £19k + company car. We paid £750 a month for our very swish 1 bed flat (not in London, but in the SE). And obviously food, bills and travel costs were so cheap back then. We always had spare cash for a night out, DVDs, some H&M clothing.

Flopppsss · 26/10/2025 14:14

FlyingSolo16 · 26/10/2025 13:54

its just sickening. It’s gone from going to uni, working hard and making a career in order to buy a house, and having a family, to doing the same thing for a flat share with multiple other people. What’s the point

Can you live with family for a bit to save on the rent? Obviously have no idea where they are based in the country and where you're based.

HonoraBridge · 26/10/2025 14:13

You haven’t given us enough information. It sounds a bit low but it all depends on: your PQE; type and size of firm; what area of law you will be doing etc. If you really are a solicitor, you would know that this is critical information.

Roastiesarethebestbit · 26/10/2025 14:10

I can see that being disappointing after such a lengthily interview process. But I find your ‘what’s the point’ attitude a bit ‘woe is me’. I graduated 25 years ago and all of my peers lived in flat shares for a good few years, either until they moved in with their partners , or their salaries had increased, or their parents gave them money for a flat deposit!

ELO10538 · 26/10/2025 14:09

I made more than that as a solicitor's clerk (outside London).

TattooStan · 26/10/2025 14:09

CopperTray · 26/10/2025 14:07

Yes- I left law college in the early 90's and most people lived in flat shares. There was never the expectation to buy a house straight out of uni!

Same. Not to do the whole "When i was a kid i walked to school in my bare feet", but when I left uni in 2006, friends in London were getting a 1 bed flat, with one couple in the bedroom, and 1 couple in the living room, in zone 2.

CopperTray · 26/10/2025 14:07

Fandango52 · 26/10/2025 14:00

Do you currently live in a flat share, if you don’t mind me asking? It sounds like you’re quite surprised that most young single people in big UK cities live in flatshares, or studios with shared bathrooms, but that’s the way it’s been for at least the last 10 years - especially in London and the SE.

Yes- I left law college in the early 90's and most people lived in flat shares. There was never the expectation to buy a house straight out of uni!