Wragges joins salary war with 20 per cent pay hike

Wragge & Co has joined the associate salary race among national firms, upping starting salaries for its City newly-qualified associates (NQs) by more than a fifth.

NQs based at the firm’s London office will now take home £62,000, an increase of £11,000, or 21 per cent, on the £51,000 NQs received last year.

The increase is just shy of the new salary to be received by NQs at Pinsent Masons and DLA Piper, who have both boosted salaries for their City NQs to £63,000 (www.thelawyer.com 22 June 2007).

Wragges associates of one-year PQE in the City will now receive £66,000, an increase of £12,000 or 22 per cent on last year’s £54,000, and lawyers reaching the two-year PQE mark are also now guaranteed a salary increase for the first time.

Two-year PQE salaries now start at £69,000, up an amazing £15,000, or 27 per cent per cent, from the previous starting point of £54,000 they would have already received at one-year PQE level.

Associates at the firm’s Birmingham head office have also had their salaries raised. NQs will now receive £40,000, an increase of £4,000, or 11 per cent, on last year’s £36,000.

One-year PQEs will now receive £42,000, an increase of £4,000 or 10 per cent on last year’s £38,000, and two-year PQE salaries will begin at £42,500, up £4,500 or 12 per cent, from the previous £38,000.