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?

I make more salary as a claims handler.

1. Rounds of interviews for a solicitor? That’s not enough for what you do.

If this is for your training contract or even first couple of years and not London based, I would take it. Competition fierce and as previous posters say, generally you need to know someone for an entry.
once your foot is in the door, specialize then look for an out.
Yes, I think it’s an insult but it can pay in the long run to turn the other cheek- a bird in the hand as they say

Graduates, not actual solicitors? As I said. A solicitors salary used to be enough to support a family with one salary.

What level solicitor are you, OP - if you don’t mind me asking? And are you based in London/the South East, or elsewhere? And what sort of salary would you expect for the rule you applied for, and what’s your current salary? You don’t have to answer, of course, but this might help with calibrating the salary of the job you applied for with the expected salary of similar roles in your area.

Could you not pivot to commercial law in London? £150 K starting salary.

😂

I appreciate you’re trying to come up with a well-meant solution, but I don’t think it’s workable.

It is almost impossible to get into that sort of role as it’s staggeringly competitive and the work-life balance is zero.

OP would be competing with new graduates with perfect grades, connections and experience, who are willing and able to work 12-15hr+ shifts in the office at least 5 days a week and dedicate their life to work with barely any social life.

I don’t know OP’s circumstances, and I apologise for being so blunt, which I don’t mean to be, but I think there is a very slim chance that OP would be able to successfully apply for a commercial law role at a top London firm if the roles they’re currently applying for advertise a £27.5k salary.

I work in insurance claims. We pay £24k plus bonus to school leavers to answer the phones.

It'll go up quickly though,won't it? My friend's dd started at that and is on 50 now a couple of years later.

I do think for what solicitors do the pay is shockingly low, it's a complete myth they're all rolling in it.

No, not unless you’re at a larger firm.

That's a joke. I earn more than that and I'm a PA in the NHS.

OP - why don't you get a job at a larger firm? All the solicitors I know earn v well

That is ridiculous, especially for a private client lawyer - I’ve been trying to recruit one for ages, and we start at about £35-£40 for NQ, not in London

Yes!

Psychotherapist and counselling salaries are regressing at a really fast pace - no meaningful pay increases in the NHS for over a decade and private companies wanting to pay 10 - 20K less than NHS positions would pay.

For a 40-hour week, it’s £13.22 per hour.

For context that’s less than a pound an hour more than NMW.

For further context my H is on £13/hr as an unskilled labourer in a local company (that’s the title for his role). He’s expecting that wage to go up soon to £14/hr. While I don’t subscribe to the view that white-collar roles are inherently more valuable than manual jobs, at all, my H is working outside of the industry he trained in and got his 20 years of experience, he walked in to this job with very little relevant experience. OP has studied, done further training and professional exams, and has work experience in that field and is offered the same money as he is on. It’s not hard to see that something has gone very wrong with careers, education, and cost of living in this country.

Not an Aldi, our local Aldi is recruiting for £26k !!! Honestly I am tempted of packing in what I’m doing and just go for an Aldi job. Hassle, stress free job and good pay. This country has killed all aspiration left in it.

yes it’s taking the piss. secretaries with 1 interview and a typing test earn 33k (in scotland).

They were solicitors and barristers. It was just a TV show but very representative of the life of young professionals in the 1990s.

It’s partly this kind of attitude why wages have stagnated so much in the UK. Businesses pay as little as they can get away with. We shouldn’t be letting them get away with ridiculous salaries. OP is a qualified solicitor. She should absolutely not accept such a low salary. She said she’s in a job currently so it’s not like she desperately needs to earn. Best to hold out for a better paid role.

As a paralegal currently on minimum wage, I’d love to know where I can work as a PA for more than that, wages at the moment feel shocking!

Don’t know where you are in the country but have you spoken to recruiters in the area where you live/would like to work?

have you thought about looking further afield for work or a different specialism?

Have read all your posts, not the full thread but your view of solicitors’ salaries doesn’t sound very realistic to me. If you’re at NQ level specialist recruiters should be able to help guide you

@FlyingSolo16 These types of starting salaries are not unusual outside of London, even for jobs like yours or mine that require professional registration and CPD.

Please keep in mind though that you're on mumsnet, where salaries of £80 - 100k are considered "normal" and a salary of £60k is poverty. In previous discussions I've had, the average mumsnetter absolutely refuses to believe that any professional could start on a salary below £30k.

So in all probability, you're going to be called a liar by a group of people whose salary does not correlate with their intelligence.

It’s absurdly low. I have (completely useless, but that isn’t even the point) admin support in a public sector role earning £36k pro rata.

Honestly, you'd be better off getting some supplementary qualification in a minor legalistic specialism (which is my ONLY legal qualification, studied for independently) and go in house at some company.