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.

How much do you think we "spend abroad", out of interest, and on what?

Posters are comparing apples and oranges.

whether posters would love 62k salary is irrelevant.

As another poster said, check the industry standard.

If you're trying to win a debate, I'm not really interested in getting in to that. Happy to give that one too you to be fair.
I honestly do not know exactly how much we spend abroad, but it is in the billions.
Military, asylum, overseas aid, etc. - you know exactly what we spend and what on, else you wouldn't be questioning me on that.
I also think those on benefits who are able to work should do some form of community service to 'earn' the money they're given.
I know way too many who work the system and sit on their lazy backsides, living on the hard earned cash of everyone who contributes to this country.
Of course, if someone is physically unable to work, then they need help. But way too many are able to work, they just don't want to.
What we give out to benefit cheats is astounding, and what we spend catching them is more so.
A huge could be saved there if the Govt did something about this. It is easy too easy to claim when you're not actually entitled to anything.
Anyway, I went off on another tangent there, and we could do this all day, but I'm happy to leave it here.
Have a great bank holiday Monday.

so you don’t know the numbers but think less should be spent… ok

and you clearly have no reason why we make overseas aid payments (for global stability where instability which could impact everything for one thing- rather than just being kind), asylum (because they are people and we have legal obligations) and defence (well in this day and age doesn’t that make sense)

Herein lies the problem.

The people who want us to magically find the money for a pay rise for doctors and nurses and teachers without raising taxes tend to believe that there are massive sums of money being spent on entirely optional and unnecessary things and that all we have to do to raise extra cash is stop spending money on these things.

That isn't the case.

Each year you should receive a statement of the tax you paid in the last tax year. When you receive your next one, look at the back of it. There's a pie chart detailing what your taxes get spent on. The biggest categories, if I remember correctly, are pensions and benefits, followed by health. Foreign aid spending is so minimal that it barely features. Even contributions to the EU budget - famously hundreds of millions per week - were such a small amount that it was barely worth worrying about, regardless of whether you believed we were getting value for money from our membership. And since Brexit the UK's credit rating has been downgraded, meaning that the amount we spend on national debt interest (a much bigger category) has increased.

There is no magic money tree. If you want to pay nurses more, you need to pay more taxes.

I qualified 40 years ago as a nurse, have a BSc, MSc and post grad dip and earn £45000 and work in an Emergency Department. Yes you are greedy

But the Op is not a nurse. In fact she works in a completely different sector in a completely different role. Where the base rates and comparable rates are .... different.

Your salary, with respect... and despite the fact you are undoubtedly doing a very good and important and massively valuable job....is irrelevant. If you are not happy with your salary then that is another matter and one to consider for yourself related to your circumstances.

I'm not sure I appreciate your condescending tone.
Please do not presume what I do or do not know.
I summarise on here as I'm extremely busy, and don't really have spare time to talk to someone who seems hell bent on trying to argue.
I'm fully aware of the need to spend in certain areas.
I, along with many people, believe the amounts we spend far exceed what is necessary.
Especially with the cost of lining crisis here.
I've no interest in talking to someone who seems to think they know I know nothing 🙄
Good bye👋

Hi silly. So you are basically saying someone who earns more than a teacher shouldn’t be supported and that all workers no matter what job should receive equal pay?

Well you should have gone to law school not med school.

Hecate01
No need to be so rude and disrespectful.

You can't blame people for getting a bit exasperated with the 100th person to come on this thread and tell the OP she's greedy for wanting to be paid market rate for her actual job as a solicitor because you are a nurse/teacher/all round good egg and you get paid less.

If you don't have anything relevant to say, this thread is not for you.

And how much you get paid as a nurse is not relevant.

@MargotBamborough spot on. The OP has studied hard for her career the same as all the teachers and nurses. No need for the bitterness because she picked a better paying career.

You're earning just over DOUBLE what I earned when I lived in Birmingham (only a few years ago). That's as a professional graduate with about 15 years experience.

YABU.

Were you working as a solicitor though?

Why should the OP only be paid the same as or less than a nurse/teacher/whatever? Is there some sort if salary banding which means women should all be paid the same?

She's in a completely different sector with all the advantages and disadvantages that brings.

If you are a teacher/nurse/whatever and don't like what you are paid, do something about it. Acquire niche skills, join the private sector, sell your skills and experience and be prepared to take the rough with the smooth.

For what it's worth I would like to see teachers paid more.

Mainly so the profession can attract a better calibre of applicant than the idiotic whingers we have seen on this thread. If you think your teacher salary is relevant to the OP's question then you're not smart enough to be teaching kids.

But your comment was just silly.

women are already paid less than men - partly because they are aggressive enough in salary negotiations.

you are telling a solicitor she is being greedy for wanting a higher salary because you get paid less working in a completely different sector.

if this was your daughter would you tell her she can never earn more than you because you deserve it more? Would you tell a young female tech grad to stay small, earn less than everyone else because anyone who earns more than a nurse is greedy???

it’s such utter nonsense. It’s not greedy to negotiate for your worth. Unfortunately that’s not how it works in the public sector. But those in the private sector need to know their worth and demand it. I can guarantee most males in OP’s form are doing just that

I’m an EA and I make 65k, I’m thinking of leaving because I’m worth 75 in a bank.

I don’t have a degree.

Shouldn’t take you long to retain and earn a decent salary!

Sorry my comment was for FarmGirl78

But OP didn't ask that. She asked if it was a decent wage or if she's being unreasonable. That is a decent post grad salary, especially when you're not in London.

If you think the OP was asking whether people thought it was a decent salary in general, rather than a decent salary for a commercial solicitor with 7 PQE working in Birmingham, that might go some way towards explaining why you were earning such a low salary despite being a graduate who has been working for 15 years.

Its all relative. Were I come from £31k isn't a low salary. Obviously everyone would like more but I have no complaints. I very much go by "Enough is a feast".

Oh aye, so if you'd qualified as a solicitor like the OP has instead of bimbling around in a job with a non graduate salary you'd be happy to be paid less than your peers, would you? It's all relatively, after all.

This only shows NQ salaries, not PQ salaries. https://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/law-firms/law-firm-salaries-compared

However, it gives you an idea of the huge variations per law firm and region.

If you think you're good at what you do, talk to a recruiter and move. Because you could get paid more. But you're unlikely to get that massive bump staying with the same firm.