The JLD on the minimum wage abolition: grave, exploitative and exclusive

The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) represents students, trainee solicitors and solicitors with up to five years post-qualification experience across England and Wales, with a membership of 70,000.

The JLD believes that it is in the interests of students and trainee solicitors particularly to have a prescribed minimum salary higher than the national minimum wage (which is what firms could legitimately pay their trainees from 1 August 2014).

If the national minimum wage applies to trainee solicitors, they will earn £6.08 per hour with a monthly take home of £838.02, based on a 35-hour working week.

Saddled with debt

Individuals embarking on a legal career are saddled with huge debt and course fees from undergraduate through to required postgraduate study. There is no question about it, individuals simply cannot be expected to adequately support themselves through a two year training period on a salary of £11,065.

The JLD believes that those who are unable to support themselves financially on this wage, and who are from lower socio-economic groups will be deterred from pursuing a legal career. It believes that, in the long term, this will have a disproportionate effect on diversity within the profession. The costs involved to enter the profession are already extortionate, and it presents a grave disadvantage to these groups to lower their minimum salary.

The JLD lobbied against this cause from the outset, and you can see the path of its campaign here.

With this change now upon us, the JLD is determined to continue its fight for a minimum salary and seeks the support from its members to come forward with stories of how they have been affected.

The JLD conducted a survey asking its members:

"Would you work as a trainee solicitor for the statutory minimum salary if you had self-funded your LPC?"

Answers:

Yes: 18% (83 votes)

No: 82% (381 votes)

This outcome is also reflected in a number of emails the JLD receives from individuals concerned about how the abolition of the trainee minimum salary will affect them.

However, the JLD is not just concerned with protecting those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, the JLD works to prevent the exploitation of individuals working at a junior level in legal practices.

Cheap labour

The JLD is concerned that firms will use the abolition to exploit employees by using them as cheap labour. This is an area the JLD also receives regular emails on from members asking for help and guidance due to feeling exploited by their firm with some even being asked to work for free. This further reduction on the minimum salary will only serve to assist further exploitation of our more vulnerable members, who are already carrying large debts.

The JLD is yet to see if the number of training contracts significantly increases this year (as was reassured by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in their consultation on this abolition. The JLD promises to continue to monitor the situation and work to further the interests of its members.

More recently, at the beginning of June, the JLD Chair, Sophia Dirir, submitted a proposal to the Law Society and requested that it recommend a trainee minimum salary, as is the current situation in Scotland. A copy of the JLD's letter can be found here.

The JLD is currently waiting on a response from The Law Society to this proposal.

Please contact the JLD at juniorlawyers@lawsociety.org.uk with your concerns and opinions on this issue, and if you have been personally affected by the abolition, the JLD would like to hear your case and all personal details will be anonymised.

Tamasin Dorosti is a member on the Junior Lawyers Division Executive Committee