A legal recruitment agency has claimed that nearly one third of trainee solicitors are being paid less than the Law Society’s recommended salary.
The recommended salary, set in August 2014, is £20,276 in London and £18, 183 outside of the capital. However, according to Douglas Scott’s 2016 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker, 31% of trainees are paid below these thresholds. Salaries vary in different areas—less than half receive the recommended salary in the north west, compared to 88% in the south west and 80% in London.
Only 2% of trainees are paid on or around the minimum wage, despite fears to the contrary. However 10% of trainee solicitors in London are paid below the living wage and 20% of those across the rest of the country.
Douglas Scott director Jonathan Nolan says: “Budgetary pressures born of the ongoing liberalisation of the legal services market and economic uncertainty mean that law firms are engaged in a balancing act—they want to create opportunity but at a price they are comfortable with.”
