At what point did this become an exclusive or headline news? Trainee Salaries within Scottish law firms are always been closely regulated and at this level. Evidently the trainee salaries are not at London levels but nor is the cost of living in any of the Scottish cities comparable to London. I am not disagreeing that the salaries are much lower or entering into any discussion about whether its justified, just that this is very old news and hardly exclusive.

Glad to see wage inflation in Scotland. I was on £16k as a first year trainee in Scotland 7 years ago!

While Edinburgh might not have the transport and rental costs of London, everything else is of a similar price. Don't know how I survived (well I do, excessive credit card abuse).

...topping that on the povo scale, is my £13K 6 years ago in my first year. That said, it is much cheaper in Edinburgh. I worked in London for a couple of years at a City Firm - the usual 9 till midnight affair. I worked out that after tax and rent I was only £300 a month better off in London.

There is something to be said for the 9-5 or maybe 6 of Edinburgh despite the wage cut.

If they think this is news, have they checked trainee salaries in supposedly top corporate firms in Northern Ireland?

Typically the Law Society minimum, which equals to £11,400 for a first year trainee.

Qualifieds sit around the £20k mark.

The Law Society doesn't do anything about it, and they can afford to, given the excess of wannabe solicitors around.

We had noticed the NI salaries - probably something we'll follow up with next week. Explains why A&O/Herbies were so keen to get started out there...

Scottish firms are notoriously tight. The only ones that pay trainees fairly are the non-Scottish HQ'd ones - DLA, Pinsents and CMS.

Brodies pay is awful - 5 years qualified and still earning under £40k = disgustingly bad pay!

MacRoberts pay the law society minimum. No benefits to speak of save the offer of free eye tests... which are free on the nhs anyway.

As a trainee in a Scottish law firm I would like to point out that we do not work 9 till 5. Our working day is long, and we can often be found in the office well before 9am and well past midnight.

In addition, not all degrees are free in Scotland - fees can exceed £20,000 to complete certain LLB degrees.

Scottish students have to pay for their diploma in legal practice - which is in the region on £6,0000 - without which they are ineligible to embark on a traineeship.

The cost of living in Edinburgh or Glasgow, while not as high as London, is fair higher than that of Bristol or Birmingham.

This issue stems from the Law Society of Scotland setting the minimum trainee wage levels so low. It is completely unfair and unrealistic to set the same minimum wage level for trainees at small, high street firms as for trainees at large commercial outfits who have to work harder, longer hours and live in the city centre.

And the Scot's complain of 'brain drain' - no wonder all the bright young things head to England to complete TC. I did.

This is true. Trainees in Scotland are paid less than the average call centre worker and work substantially longer hours. The hours that a trainee works in a Scottish commercial firm are comparable to those put in by trainees in Birmingham and Manchester, although perhaps not London. Unfortunately, there is an approximate £5,000-10,000 a year difference in salaries between Scotland and regional English offices despite living costs being broadly similar. As a Scottish trainee, I am often ashamed to mention my salary to non-lawyers as they seem to assume that those in the profession are raking in money!

Have you perhaps thought that trainees and NQs in London are paid far too much?

Trainee salaries are indeed low in Scotland - but then so are salaries for qualified solicitors of all levels. In Scotland, only equity partners take home anything like a decent amount of money.

Things are even worse in northern Ireland where trainee solicitors are working for free or at best get the law society's set minimum wage of £49 per week. Definitely not a great paying profession!

Not really news guys! Simple fact is that the majority of MMS trainees do the job on the basis it looks good on the CV. Because it's highly unlikely they'll get a job on qualification either!

I started my traineeship this week with a commercial firm in Edinburgh. I took a 60% pay cut to do so. Everyone knows trainee salaries in Scotland are rubbish but when the competition for traineeships is so intense you're not in a position to make demands.

To the poster who has taken a 60% pay cut to become a trainee - I think you've made a mistake mate - will be years and years before your salary gets back up to your pre trainee level. Solicitors in Scotland aren't well paid - even in the big commercial firms. If its money you're after you should have trained as an accountant.

The salaries are kept depressed because there is no real competition in the market and the biggest firms are all run by people that went to a few schools in Edinburgh and have been mates since Uni.

If firms want to run a laid-back 9-5 operation then fair enough but the fact is that all of those cited in this article use the same corporate waffle and HR-tyranny system as their MC counterparts...without compensating their people for having to put up with it.

I work in a regional firm in the North West of England and am 18 months PQE. I earn less than a Trainee manager at McDonalds. That's not a nice thing to think about, especially given the amount of time and cost involved in getting to this stage, and the fact that over a quarter of my monthly salary goes on paying off my College of Law loan...

I'm still happy with my decision to train in Scotland, even on a starting salary of £18k. My hours are probably comparable with a trainee in the English regions, but rents in Edinburgh are reasonable enough for me to live 5 minutes walk from the office, albeit in a small-ish flat. Zero commuting and getting to live in Edinburgh means I actually have aspects to my lifestyle that money can't buy - a relatively large amount of free time and interesting things to do in it. Of course I'd like to be paid more, but I'm certainly not unhappy with my lot.

Tods Murray also only pay 18K - absolutely ludicrous in comparison to English salaries, especially given the living costs of Edinburgh! Although not quite as expensive as London, it certainly isn't 15-20K cheaper!

The huge difference is that you have a life in Scotland. I worked for a very large firm in London and made more money that I could spend - mainly because I had no time.

The hourly rates of an Edinburgh and London lawyer aren't much different - circa £100K in London at 60h per week or circa £60k at 35h per week.

I was paid nothing during my traineeship. I had no choice. Leave or receive nothing. Due to the desperate state of the market I stayed and completed 2 years for free.

I am about to go into second year at a Scottish University and this article is so depressing!

The average call centre in Glasgow will pay its workers circa £20k. Let's use that as a ballpark figure. This is meant as no slight on call centre workers, however, little to no qualifications are required to do the job - on the job training is normally provided.

Contrast this with someone who does a law degree. Four years spent doing the LLB. This is four years spent living fairly frugally, not earning. In addition to this, should one wish to practise as a solicitor, the student must undertake the Diploma in Legal Practice. In total, this is FIVE years out of the job market. Five years you are not earning. And what is your reward for all your hard work and effort? A measly 18k!! No harm to call centre workers but they have not had to go through 4 years of long-winded tortuous dissenting judgments and latin-strewn jargon!

With a starting salary like that many young people will be dissuaded from entering the legal profession in Scotland. It really is tuppence. When you consider the sort of salary you may be able to command on a general graduate scheme, where is the great incentive to enter law?

I suspect many young students are naiive and believe the hype which appears to be prevalent across Scotland - that lawyers are all very well paid. Sadly, this has been exposed as a fraud and it is indeed remarkably disingenuous of those within the profession to continue promulgating this view.

Many are often surprised when I respond that, although doing the LLB, I have little intention to enter the legal profession. Most find this to be rather silly, believing I am throwing away some great money-spinning opportunity. Yet in reality I am happy with this choice - in light of the true facts, entering the profession is a bad choice. Fighting tooth and nail just to land a traineeship, with the considerable outlay of 6k just to do the diploma to allow you to secure said traineership, is really not worth it any more, not for this kind of starting salary. I find the whole prospect of a career in law somewhat tedious, frustrating and disappointing, and would likely suffer from the knowledge that I was being overworked, underpaid and quite frankly, undervalued.

What a shameful indictment on the legal profession in Scotland, and it is small wonder that students such as myself will turn their backs on entering the profession, where much better paying jobs may be available with the big graduate employers, allowing a better quality of life into the bargain.

£17k a year for an unspecified time.

No thanks.

I feel sorry for the those who paid in excess of 6k for an LLB to earn this pittance working 12 hours a day 5 days a week.

Mugs.