To think this salary is an insult?

[FlyingSolo16]

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?

It's ridiculous. I'm just applying for a social prescriber job. They want years of experience, safeguarding qualification, experience of dealing with vulnerable people, mental health etc. Job application has taken me all day and still not done. Salary 30k. There are literally about 40 essential criteria that they want evidence of for a salary that barely is livable on.

I recently applied for a paralegal position with a salary of £26k

How old are you?

Over 40, and I'm a foreign licensed solicitor

That was my starting salary as a solicitor - admittedly well over a decade ago. I had contemporaries whose first salary was closer to 20k (and, when hours worked were factored in, was less than minimum wage...).

It varies a lot by region and practice area, though I emigrated some time back and couldn't tell you what's market today.

Ah you're doing this until you get qualified here?

It's a firm that uses lawyers licenced in my jurisdiction, so it's to get a foot in the door there.

All the best with it!

Thank you!

Out of interest OP do you have student loans?

That’s ridiculously low. I’ve seen conveyancing assistant jobs advertised for £24-26k.

Me and my DH both have the same (professional) jobs and we earn around £50k each. We just bought a 4 bed house for £600k which is around average for this area. We discovered that the elderly couple who were selling it had bought the house in 1971 for £10k and the gentleman had the same profession and job as us. According to Google he would have earnt around £20k a year for that job in 1971, and he was able to buy a brand new 4 bed house for approx. half of his yearly salary. His wife didn't work, she stayed at home with their 3 children. Whereas now, that same house costs 6 x mine and my DH's combined salary and we both have to work to be able to afford to pay the mortgage and raise our DC.

A young relative is a junior solicitor and is on about £50k

Lawyer Potral has £34,700 as the average salary for a newly-qualified solicitor. I imagine if you excluded London from the figures, the average salary would meaningfully drop.

www.thelawyerportal.com/solicitor/solicitor-salaries/

Whether or not £27,500 is "an insult" or not largely depends on practice area and geographic location. Corporate solicitor in London? Very low. Family law in Hull? Very typical.

I am a retired solicitor. This happened to me a few years ago . I told them I was not as a senior qualified solicitor and ex partner going to work for a secretary's salary.
My life is worth more than that apparently they were surprised I turned the job down presumably because I was older and presumably desperate not so.

I would contact them and ask if they have made an error with the salary, it might be £127,000, and the messenger was just careless.

there is a lot of nonsense about.

salaries should be on the job advert so nobody gets their time wasted.

never go for an interview without confirming the actual figure of the salary!

Yes - but doesn't surprise me. I currently have a fresh faced law grad (not yet qualified) working in my team. Her horror stories of interviewing for roles in London were all pretty similar.

Good luck in your job hunt.

I work as an administrator within a public body.

Thats my wage for 40hrs a week.

I agree that's trainee rate. My daughter is an NQ and she's on £47k in Edinburgh.

That does seem low, which area of law?

If you are NQ, why are you looking to move now rather than after a couple of years PQE? Your value will increase with experience, the early years are tough but it is possible to make a decent living.

Have you considered moving to London and getting a few years experience there?

If you want to remain where you are, I suspect a couple of years' experience and then moving will make a huge difference.

Seriously I’ve had clients joke ‘I’m in the wrong job!’ When I told them my hourly rate, yet my law firm were paying me a quarter of what I was actually bringing in by way of fees. I am now a consultant solicitor and finally earning ‘proper money’, taking 75% of fees I bring in, after years of terrible pay (due to PT working, having my daughter as a trainee, starting off in legal aid work etc) but I’m now 16 years qualified so could do this. It might be worth it in the long haul. I was paid £13,000 as a trainee 14-16 years ago, representing clients at Court as well as running a full case load! Some of my clients on benefits had a higher income than me back then!

According to a relative who's worked in law for decades, there's currently a glut of lawyers and accountants and that's why pay in those roles has plummeted. A bit like what happened with those working in IT.

Doesn’t seem to be the case in family law in the South East, but might be the case for trainees/NQs.

That’s terrible, you are a qualified solicitor!!