The research, carried out by CoursesOnline, took information from more than 10,000 job postings to find the quickest route to a six-figure salary, with law emerging winner overall. Ten categories were studied in total, the others being IT, HR, finance, marketing, healthcare, education, construction, recruitment and research.
Jobs in the legal sector brought home £100,000 after an average of eight years’ experience, while almost half (49%) of entry level roles offered a salary of at least £40,000, the third highest of any sector.
Law performed well across a range of benchmarks—on average, three years’ experience was needed to reach £40,000 per year, beaten only by finance (one year) and human resources and research (two years).
It took four years on average—the shortest time—to earn £60,000 in the legal sector, and in finance and marketing. After an average of six years, legal professionals could command an £80,000 salary (second only to finance, which averaged five years).
The lucrative milestone of £100,000 could be attained after an average of eight years—the fastest of all the sectors studied.