to ask if you think this salary is reasonable or am I being greedy?

[bkyegres]

I qualified as a solicitor in 2016, so I’m around 7 years pqe. I’m paid 62k in Bham, commercial rather than private client work. I’ve only just paid off my student loan last year and honestly I feel like the firm are taking the piss… all the studying and expense feels ridiculous to be seven years on and barely over 50k. Obviously I know what some other firms pay and I can look into it further with recruiters but I am starting to wonder if you have to join a new company for any decent pay these days?! I could have skipped uni and worked my way up to this salary by now so it all seems a bit pointless.

Specialty doctors and GPs do. Ie pretty much everyone past junior doctor stage. I think you would be complaining if you found that everyone else doing the same job as you was being paid more, regardless of what you were paid, because injustice grates.

It's way more than I earn in the NHS

I wouldn’t be happy with a salary of 62k and all of that studying. I do think that sometimes you need a company change to get onto bigger money. I certainly had to!

good luck, find a company who are paying more or go self employed if that’s a realistic option ( I know zero about solicitors )

Unfortunately yes sometimes you do eed to move employer to get a jump in pay. Or try asking my DH got a 18% by mentioning he had seen jobs advertised for exact same job more pay. They asked him what he expected he chickened out and said 10 to 18% more boss told him next day you will be getting a nice pay rise just need to discuss it at next meeting. 1 week later he was offered the top amount he asked. Good luck

You could earn more than this in a sales position!

@bkyegres

Hi OP, ignore all those people complaining about their own rubbish wages, not your problem they can't earn more.

Maybe you should've put this in chat but that would still have these moaners turning up with their irrelevant points.

Maybe Mumsnet can have a careers section with the careers split so you don't need the low paid clogging up your thread.

What do recruitment sites say is the average?

I wouldn't work for less than £70k and even then I feel like I'm selling myself short - I don't care if that is more than than a bin man or cleaner. Their low wage is not my problem.
Although the binmen get paid £30k here - I once saw advertised - so not bad for people that can't even recognise numbers when returning bins to the right house.
£30k for dragging bins and emptying them!
You definitely deserve more as a solicitor.

Working all hours in a City firm or being eligible for London weighting isn’t necessary to be paid more highly than the op is at present.

I am confident that she could improve her salary while staying in Birmingham / the Midlands. Might be a change of culture - I don’t think she’s said much about where she works - but the opportunities are there.

And what?
It's not her fault.

Maybe the OP should've just asked solicitors to comment on her thread.

Ignore the teachers. Comparing law to teaching is like comparing a psychologist with someone who works in marketing. They are totally different professions with totally different salaries. I think your question should’ve been asked to lawyers only. £62k is a bit poo for 7 years. I’m also sure your days are very long and holidays are about 4 weeks a year. You could ask for a rise & if not consider going elsewhere. Your experience is in demand and so it is important to know your worth. Maybe consider USA law firms looking for UK employees as they pay well. I know lawyers who are paid a lot more so it’s worth going for it.

Yep, at her level and specialising in commercial law she could easily go in house and earn more than she is currently getting paid, for a job which will probably be 9-6 most days. Or if she got a Grade 6 role in the Government Legal Department she could earn the same but get a much more valuable pension. (I don't particularly recommend this though.)

The bloody teachers would still have piled on anyway.

Seriously, this comments.

So what if you earn less as a teacher or working for the NHS. OP isn’t a teacher and doesn’t work for the NHS, so comparing her private sector salary to your public sector role isn’t helpful.

To those complaining, imagine if you were on £20k, but all your peers with the same experience were on £30k - would you seriously not complain and take the view of “meh, could be worse, I could be on minimum wage”. Of course you wouldn’t. OP is entitled to feel the same way without the very unhelpful comments.

This is my thinking, too.

62k is barely over 50k?

Were you away when they did maths ?

YANBU to want to be paid market rate for your skills and experience. Best way of working out what that is, is to chat to a couple of recruiters and then make a plan to like up some interviews if the conclusion is your current salary is below current market rates. Good luck!

your question was about whether that figure is reasonable for your level of PQE in that area of the U.K… so people coming on to offer whataboutery in relation to salaries for other jobs are just irrelevant.

The irony of people making irrelevant comparisons to completely unrelated careers implying that the OP is thick...

£62k and you live in Birmingham. Fuck me you’re rich!

Why don't you recommend GDL?

Why do you think a nurses salary is relevant to this question?

I was surprised when I went into law that not everyone was paid a lot and had time to mess around with just one case (how it always seems when I watched LA Law). By the time I left, 15 years ago, I was working at a mid-sized law firm in London suburbs, clinical negligence law, the pay was £50k. But it was also close to where I lived and although I worked hard I also had time for hobbies. I think you have to be careful as some places have a really brutal work culture.

Why do you think a nurses salary is relevant to this question?

Because the question is "do you think this salary is reasonable or am I being greedy", which makes this poster's reply perfectly reasonable and relevant.

(and I'm not a nurse)

Speak to a head hunter/recruiter and take their advice as they know the market. Having previously worked for two big Birmingham firms I would say this is low but as has been said before on this you need to move to make a big jump in salary or at least get an offer and tell your firm you’re going to leave but could be persuaded if they match it. All those saying I am a teacher or watcher and can only dream of earning that, it’s irrelevant- she wants like for like comparisons. And no, you’re not greedy, you want what you’re worth!

Reasonable for law not totally unrelated jobs. Bloody hell.

A few reasons.

First thing you need to know is that they'll advertise roles with a particular salary band, e.g. £48,000 - £58,000 for a Grade 7 role. What they don't tell you is that they'll automatically start you on the bottom of that salary range, and you won't move off the bottom of it due to the pay freeze. The only Grade 7s earning £58,000 are the ones who have been Grade 7s for a really long time and got automatic salary increases to move up the pay band before the pay freeze, which has been in place for over a decade now. This means that the most talented Grade 7s who are ready to be promoted to Grade 6 are still at the bottom of the pay band, and the people at the top of the pay band are the ones who have been bumbling along at the same level of seniority for 20 years because they either aren't very ambitious or aren't very good. It also means that when those talented Grade 7s get promoted to Grade 6 and have management responsibilities, they'll be earning about the same as those long term Grade 7s who never got promoted.

The process for getting promoted is incredibly slow. Although they don't tend to promote rubbish people in my experience, they will make talented people who are ready for promotion do two roles at Grade 7 before they'll consider them for a Grade 6 role. So that means it'll take you at least 6 years to get promoted from Grade 7 at £48,000 to Grade 6 on £60,000.

Another reason I wouldn't recommend it is that once you're in, it can be very difficult to get out. This is partly because you might end up doing something niche like bona vacantia which has no real equivalent in the private sector. But it's also due to a perception that the Government Legal Department is where legal careers go to die, and that the people who work there are no good and would never be able to hack it in private practice. For what it's worth I think this perception is very unfair. There are lots of very hardworking, talented lawyers there, many of whom trained and worked in top law firms beforehand. Again, this will depend massively on what job you are doing. So for example, when I worked there I was doing a general commercial role with a specialism in EU law issues, which was actually pretty valuable to private sector employers. I didn't have any problems getting out again when I wanted to. And my former boss is now head of public sector law at one of the Big 4. So it is possible. But it can be very hard.

I also hear that morale has taken a real nose dive in the last few years.

I am coming up to 2 years PQ in private client in the south east. I am earning £45k. My starting wage was £35k. I thought I’d be on a lot more. No maternity pay. Won’t be clearing my student loan any time soon.

Correct and a good description of legal roles in other gov depts too.