Trainee Solicitor Salaries Slipping

Posted in News on 11 Jan 2017

Trainee Solicitor Salaries 35% of all Trainee Solicitors are being paid below Law Society recommended levels according to our research. 12 months ago 31% were being paid under the threshold.  

London trainees fare best with only 25% being paid below the recommended £20,913 salary. On average, 37% of trainees in the regions fall short on salary, trainees in the North of England are worst off with 1 in 2 being paid below the £18,547 recommended by Chancery Lane.

We also discovered that Trainee Solicitors are in general contracted to a 37.5 hour working week, and although average actual working weeks were more like 40, 13% of all trainees are working over 48 hours a week. 

  • 38% of trainees in corporate and commercial environments working over 48 hours
  • 1 in 4 In House trainees
  • 1 in 5 Top 200 trainees
  • 1 in 5 trainees with UK based international law firms
  • 26% of those working over 48 hours were being paid below the Law Society recommended salary  
  • 5% of all trainees are being paid the minimum wage or under compared to 2% 12 months ago
  • The average working week in the legal profession is 42 hours, although in London it is 44

Douglas Scott Managing Director Kathryn Riley commented “At entry level the competition for talent comes not just from rival law firms but other service sectors. The legal profession is still a great place to be but stagnating trainee salaries have the potential to damage that perception.”

Over 500 Trainee Solicitors responded to the larger piece of research that is Douglas Scott’s Annual Salary and Benefits Benchmarker.

Based on the article that originally featured in the Law Gazette

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