Macfarlanes and Travers Smith have boosted their associate pay rates, with base salaries for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers at both firms rising to 75,000.
Macfarlanes does not operate a strict associate lockstep, with pay divided into bands covering the potential spectrum of what lawyers can earn, but base pay for NQs has been hiked by almost 6% from 71,000 to 75,000.
First-year lawyers at the firm can expect to be paid between 81,300 and 90,000 when their salary and potential bonus is added together. This range assumes individual performance bonuses of 8%-15% and a firmwide bonus of 5%.
Base pay for lawyers with one year post-qualification experience (PQE) is now 81,000. The firm declined to provide salary bands for 1PQE or 2PQE lawyers because pay begins to diverge at this stage based on performance.
However, the firm did provide the potential range for 3PQE, which is between 107,350 and 123,000.
Macfarlanes operates two bonus schemes; one an individual bonus scheme for lawyers, payable in July, and a firmwide bonus scheme for all staff paid in October. The firm said that it expects the firmwide bonus to be approximately 7.5% this year.
There is also the potential for fee earners to receive up to 10% of their salary as a bonus for exceptional performance.
Last year 1PQE lawyers received between 77,000 and 79,000, 2PQE lawyers between 80,000 and 88,000 and 3PQE lawyers between 85,000 and 98,000.
Meanwhile, Travers has also increased associate salaries, with pay for NQ lawyers up 5% from 71,500 to 75,000.
Lawyers with one year PQE will be paid 82,000, while 2PQE lawyers will receive 92,000 and 3PQE lawyers will be paid 102,000.
Last year, lawyers at 1PQE were paid 79,000, 2PQE associates were paid 91,000 and 3PQE lawyers received 100,000.
Pay for trainees has also been increased, with first-years now receiving 43,500, up from 42,500 last year, and second years taking home 49,000, up from 47,000.