To ask if I’m underpaid as a solicitor?

[Ramshackl]

I’ve been off twice on maternity leave since 2019. I’m 8 years qualified and on 62k outside London but in large UK city. My pay has gone up 2% each year the last four years. Im told by my large ish company that for commercial work this is well within the right bracket. It’s awkward asking friends about salaries from other firms but I feel this is really poorly paid? Am I deluded? Should I just ask my colleagues what they’re on? Is it because I’ve been on maternity leave twice?

My DH is 5 years post qualification and is on just over 100k, at a mid-tier firm in London (not magic circle). So your salary seems low to me, however I don't know how much it varies outside London - you can probably Google and find comparable salaries for your city.

You might need to move firms to get your market rate salary

Apply for other jobs and see what you're offered. You don't have to take the offer. But it's the only way to know your market value. Then use it as a bargaining chip with your current employer (or leave).

I’ve been there since one year pqe so it’s been a while. I’m in a senior role but there’s another two titles before partner …so not all that senior really. Just feels like huge amounts of work for not much reward! Might speak to a recruiter on Monday.

I just asked dh, and he said it might be low but it would depend on your billings. If you want to share your billings I can ask him, but np if not.

Sounds on the low side to me - I am newly qualified at a multi-national firm in a large regional city and I get £62k. Do you work at a high street firm or somewhere larger? I would expect someone 8 years PQE to be on at least £75k+ in the regions (depending on the firm)

I think it depends on a lot of things. City, type of law (Corporate traditionally one of the highest), type of firm. Hourly rate doesn't necessarily equate to salary as monies are held back to pay for all the extras you are given (if you are) from secretaries to post room to provision of a deal 🤷‍♀️

I’m c.£100k outside London at similar PQE and slightly higher hourly rate but at a firm which is towards the top end for pay in the regions. Also been on maternity leave twice and been able to progress without that being taken into account- I had normal pay rises whilst on mat leave.

I think what you are billing as a multiple of salary is the most accurate guide to whether you are underpaid. We are expected to bill around 4x salary.

Hmm. I think that’s rather low.

I’m in London as a Solicitor but this does seem low.
However what are your billable hour targets? Do you meet them, do you receive a performance related bonus which adjusts for the lower salary? If your hourly rate is £395 and you are billing say 1500 hours a year, then your benefit to the firm is in excess of £500,000 assuming a realisation rate of rate of somewhere between 80-90% of time.
I don’t know exactly where you are but on a traditional billable calculation of 3-4 times salary you are underpaid in private practice.

on £395 ph charge rate I would expect your salary to be nearer 70k at least likely plus bonus on your billing above a certain percentage. This is based on a SE firm. Corp rates tend to be pretty good provided the work is there. We have part timers on lower charge rate and earning more (pro rata).

It does depend on where you are. I’m many many more years PQE than you in commercial property. When I was an Equity partner until about three years ago that would probably be higher than we paid people of that level, but of course to a large extent it depends on what you are likely to bring in in fees. When I became salaried on sale of the practice that was the figure I went on. I’m now with a different commercial practice and my salary is higher, but not drastically so. The reason is that I’m in an area of the which does overall pay less, but our and other local commercial firms’ charges to clients are also less. (From an employer’s point of view that makes it difficult to attract and retain people who are not connected to the area and equity partnership is less appealing as you can end up paying employees more than you earn). I’m happy to bear that as I enjoy the work and the area and am happy with my standard of living. If instead I wanted to work in a larger city I would expect to be paid more, would have a higher charging rate and a higher fees target.
It’s an rather out dated way of calculating, but it may be worth looking at your target and dividing by three to get a rough idea of what your salary should be (and that assumes your target is based on your hourly rate, not on multiplying your salary by three). Also think about your worth to the firm. What’s your recovery rate like ie are you good at hitting your costs quotes or are you writing off lots of WIP? Do you hit your KPIs? Does your business development bring in or retain clients? Are you helping your team by giving guidance to more junior staff?

Sounds like you just need to change jobs more frequently.

You can’t get too comfortable- unless you’re somewhere because you want to take mat leave soon, realistically you should be jumping every 3 years or so to maximise salary.

I can't imagine that's true unless they're all at Magic Circle firms? I'm at one of the largest international firms and am on that but I'm 13 years' PQE. I know countless solicitors on much less than 150K at 8 years' PQE. It all depends on the type of law firm they are at and the type of law they specialise in.

@XelaM a couple at A&O, Linklaters then smaller places like CRS and BCLP. A few gone in-house to deputy GC or GC type roles as well.

This depends on your billings and honestly how they view you in terms of reliability and effectiveness . It is low, but if your billings are low, then it is not. How much did you bill this year?

I'm a commercial lawyer and I'm 7 PQE but did around 4 years paralegal work in the same field and managed a busy caseload before qualifying (no training contract found after LPC). I work in-house at a tech company - not in London. As it's in-house I'm not sure how it compares to private practice though (can't give you my hourly billing rate for example).

My salary is around £105k basic, topped up to about £140k-ish with annual bonus and shares etc. I work FT. Have had 2 maternity leaves too.

Just seen your update and so you're an associate (ish) level if you have SA / director (or equivalent) before partner.
I'd say £70k is about normal (I know a lot of associates at firms like DAC / DWF on that salary). The PQE is irrelevant if you haven't been promoted in that time.

DLA / Sheds / AG are higher.

That's about right for DAC / DWF / HD.

Single office, regional firms, slightly lower (probably £60k associate, £70-75k for SA).

Also areas like corporate / M & A have always given higher salaries. Comm Prop / Property disputes / insolvency currently hard to get so salaries slightly higher there.

What I will say is question whether it's ACTUALLY worth it. Work life balance and mental health are worth far more than £5k extra when you're at that kind of salary and most of any increase goes in tax.

2 years PQE on £30K and feel like I'm being mugged off big time! 😂

Does your firm have brackets per PQE level, does it have a lockstep, and does it have a London office? I know that people in regional offices are paid considerably less than in London, but that does seem low to me (albeit my baseline is big London firm) for your PQE level, but I think it would be good to try and ascertain what other people at your firm on that PQE are on. I would have thought they can't pay you less than your colleagues due to being in maternity but maybe they 'reduce' the PQE level in terms of salary by the amount of time out, eg if you took 12 months out for each, pay you as if you're 6 PQE instead of 8.

Unless you are in a small high street practice doing fixed fee or legal aid work you are!

As others have said, contract a specialist legal recruitment agent and get an idea of what you are worth, and consider moving.

So you're an Associate then? If so, as others said, unless you have a very good billing record it's about right. And also depends exactly where you are in the country, of course.

PQE isn't a good indicator. My firm's regional NQ salary is £56k so compared to that, it's low.

I qualified in a regional office on that 12 years ago.

I have former colleagues still on under £45k in the public sector many years post qualification