In
November 2019, during the winter election campaign, a BBC Question Time
audience member informed the panel that he was a member of the working
class and considered that £80,000 salary was not a lot of money and that
it was a bit of a struggle surviving on this. He expressed incredulity,
along with a significant portion of the audience, when Richard Burgon, a
Labour MP, stated that he had been a solicitor before getting into
parliament, and that his salary had been £40,000.
It
is one of the oldest examples of fake news that exists in society
today, and dates back many years. Solicitors & accountants are
considered by the general population to earn a lot more money than the
average wage. The big 4 firms in accountancy and the city law firms in
London distort the figures somewhat and make headline news, detracting
away from the reality for the majority of fee earners in both
professions.
Our
own consultants were astonished to hear this assertion because we work
with solicitors in all parts of the profession, including the high
street and at sole practitioner level, and we know that salary levels
for 90% of solicitors are lower than £45k.
Similarly
we also work with accountancy practices and undertake the recruitment
of senior accountants. We know that exactly the same issue arises. At
least 75% of accountants working in public practice do not earn more
than £45,000 per year.
It
is unfortunate that this perception exists because it does mean
increasing numbers of people applying to enter the legal profession and
the accountancy profession without actually knowing the true facts as to
how hard it is to make a living out of accountancy or law, and that the
vast majority of lawyers and accountants do not earn large amounts of
money.
The
next time somebody stands up on a mainstream political show and states
that lawyers and accountants earn huge amounts of money, maybe, just
maybe, somebody on the show can be well enough informed to correct the
obvious fake news immediately, before they spread the myth even further.
Its good news for the various universities offering LLB, ACCA and LPC
courses, but I am not sure about the professions in general.
Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.
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