Salary Story: I’m On 133k But I Should Have Asked For More
In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.
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Age: 38 Location: London Current industry and job title: Professional support lawyer Current salary: £133,000 Number of years employed since school or university: 12
Starting salary: £40,000 in 2010 Biggest salary jump: £45,000 to £96,000 in 2012 Biggest salary drop: £112,000 to £96,000 in 2016
Biggest negotiation regret: When I took my current role, I should have negotiated more. Once you’re out of the associate ‘lockstep’, your salary only goes up by inflation amounts (if that). So you need to start with as high a salary as you can get. I didn’t negotiate because it was a raise from what I was getting previously but it’s barely budged since then.
Best salary advice: Come prepared with evidence of how you’re helping the company and adding tangible value.
Lawyers at big firms make very good salaries. At the time, £40,000 (plus an £800 bonus) was on the higher end of what trainee solicitors at large law firms were making and I was thrilled. Training contracts at law firms last two years. You generally will get a raise after one year (sometimes every six months, to reflect experience gained).
I was really lucky to be working at a big law firm. We were all paid the same (£45,000) and it was very transparent. We even got small bonuses.
The biggest pay jump for lawyers is when they qualify. My pay nearly doubled to £96,000 – it was fantastic. But my workload and responsibility just about quadrupled. I didn’t have anyone looking out for me any longer because I was now a ‘qualified’ lawyer.
This is the biggest pay jump most lawyers will experience (until they become partner).
At law firms, solicitors (called ‘associates’ at the bigger firms) move through the salary ‘lockstep’. It’s basically a set salary based on how many years qualified or experienced you are. So newly qualified lawyers earn A, lawyers qualified one year earn B etc. all the way up the pay scale. I liked it because it was transparent – we were all earning the same thing (but we were all expected to work our butts off). I was never worried about being paid less than my male peers. Our bonuses were the same as well. As long as you hit your billing targets (hours billed for client work undertaken), you got your bonus, starting at 10% and going really high the more senior you got. Then each year you automatically got a big raise. I thought it was great.I had this automatic ‘lockstep’ raise each year between 2012 and 2015, hitting £112,000 (plus bonus) at the highest.I left my law firm because my mental health was so poor. I was earning a lot of money but each month when my pay hit my bank I always thought, This isn’t worth it. I spent nearly everything I made, just trying to make myself feel better. I left the law firm to take a job in-house at a company, which came with a pay cut to £96,000 plus a smaller bonus but much better hours. Pay at that company was so opaque, it really bothered me. I received a small raise after about 18 months but nothing after that (including for inflation). I talked about pay with colleagues and they were earning more than me but when I asked my boss for a raise, prepared with all evidence of earnings, he bullied me. So I left. I went back to working at a law firm but in a non-client-facing role. I regret not asking for more money but at the time it was more than I was getting previously. I also got really great benefits (including a bigger pension contribution and more holiday days). My work/life balance was also fantastic. I had small raises between 2018 and 2021. This past year we got two 5% bonuses. Following a series of ‘salary wars’ at law firms that benefited those who were in client-facing roles, management finally decided to raise the salaries of non-client-facing lawyers as well. About a month before I received this, I also asked my managers for a raise on the basis of my performance.
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