Legal Sector Salaries Set to Climb in 2022

It’s no secret that many sectors are facing severe wage inflation with many locked in ongoing battles to retain their best staff. Indeed, as the economy begins to open up as Omicron-related restrictions are eased, many legal firms in particular are facing a backlog of demand for services which were delayed during the pandemic. A recent survey by recruitment consultancy firm Robert Walters found that many in the professional services sector are planning to increase their pay rise budget by 10-15% in 2022. These sort of levels have only been seen in recent times when inflation has been much higher than currently reported.

New hires receive increased salary offers

The current success of the Covid-19 vaccine programme and the gradual easing of restrictions in 2021 had an understandably positive effect on business confidence. However, as demand for services increases, a shortage of candidates combined with bottled-up demand for people and renewed investment now means a power shift towards candidates as firms work even harder to convince the best talent to join them. Inevitably that has meant an increase in salary offers which can have a domino effect on existing pay structures.

Existing employees also set for pay rises

Whilst new employees are seeing increased salary offers to convince them to join, many existing employees’ salaries have not increased as rapidly over the past 12-18 months. However, this is expected to change throughout 2022 at most levels with some significant increases expected. Recent reports have also found that existing staff are being put under increasing pressure due to staff shortages which can lead to time off work or even looking for alternate opportunities, compounding the issue.

What do professional staff look for?

Over the past two years, the main questions potential joiners want answered center around remote working, flexible working arrangements, holiday entitlement, and compensation. In professional services, the trend has been toward compensation packages, especially in the past 6-12 months where many recruits take the ability to remote work and flexible hours as expected, especially in the legal sector where many roles can be done through a combination of on-site and off-site working.

How can we help?

At Hawsons we have a dedicated team of solicitor accountants at our offices in Sheffield, Doncaster, and Northampton.  We act for a large number of law firms across all three of our offices and offer a wide range of services which are tailored to meet their individual needs. Our legal client base consists of a multitude of firms of varying structure and size, from sole traders to limited companies and LLPs with corporate members.

Our understanding of the unique issues that many in the sector are facing, combined with our technical experience, allows our solicitor specialists to provide you with proactive, commercial and informed accountancy and tax advice.

More from our legal sector experts

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