Local government lawyer salaries up just 3% as number of vacancies rockets

Based on the 636 permanent vacancies advertised on the site in 2018 (up from 430 the previous year), average base salaries for in-house local government lawyers increased by 3%, leaving them at an average for qualified lawyers of between £39,290 - £44,320. For more senior ranks, advertised Principal Lawyer salaries actually fell slightly, on average, by more than 2% from £49,559 - £54,150 to £47,983 - £53,069 while Heads of Legal salaries dropped by around 1% to £68,548 - £74,491.

However, the proportion of roles offering some form of additional ‘market supplement’ – typically between £3000 and £5000 a year - grew strongly from 4% of advertised roles in 2017 to 12% in 2018.

Supplements were most likely to be offered by councils in the South-east of England, where 26% of job vacancies included an additional payment of some kind and London, where 16% of roles included an additional inducement.

By region, London lawyers enjoyed the highest salaries at between £43,666 - £49,090, but the differential between local government lawyers in the capital and those in the lowest-paid region - the East Midlands, where advertised salaries ranged from £35,687 to £40,791 - was only around 20%, while the average differential in property prices between the two regions is almost 250% (£194,000 v £475,000). Similarly. the differentials between the best and worst paid disciplines was only around 20% between the best-paid (housing lawyers at £41,686 - £46,409) and the lowest, those practising education law (£36,376 -£43,357).

A copy of the research can be found on the frontpage of Public Law Jobs at www.publiclawjobs.co.uk