The overall trend in respect of salary increases for the year 2003 seems to closely mirror salary increases given by firms in 2002. A survey of 100 UK and US law firms in London by Garfield Robbins International illustrates that there is still a considerable amount of caution in the legal marketplace. Any increases that occurred tended to take place at the mid-ranking and more senior levels of qualification. Increases that occurred in assistant salaries average out at approximately 5% as compared to 10% in 2002, 15% in 2001 and 25% in 2000.
While the results of the survey illustrate that some firms chose to freeze salary bands, they also showed what has also been widely reported in the press – the lowering of salary bands by some firms. The largest number of instances of lowering of bands occurred among firms with more than 80 partners and those with less than 40 partners – decreases did not occur at every level of post-qualification experience (PQE) and appeared to be in the vicinity of 2.75%. At the newly qualified (NQ) level, a number of leading City firms have instituted highly publicised salary decreases, bringing their salary rates down to £48,000 from £50,000. The largest salary decrease at the NQ level was a decrease of 9%.
