Attorneys’ salaries are based on a number of factors such as firm size, practice area, the job market, market trends and city and state of the employer. Therefore, it is important to conduct research on all of these variables, as well as be prepared to discuss them effectively during salary negotiations. The following are certain websites that may be useful in making salary determinations.
General Salary Links and Sites
National Association of Law Placement (NALP) Associate & New Graduate Salary Summaries: NALP publishes an annual Associate Salary Survey report detailing associate salaries by years of experience; salary ranges for associates through the eighth year; summer associate salaries; salaries for intellectual property attorneys, staff attorneys and law clerks; information on judicial clerks and bonuses paid to judicial clerks; and comparisons of law firm compensation and bonus structures. NALP also surveys the graduating JD class to learn about the employment experiences of new law graduates. The data from this survey is published annually in Jobs & J.D.'s: Employment and Salaries of New Law Graduates and Starting Salaries: What New Law Graduates Earn.
http://www.nalp.org/salariescompensation
JobStar Salary Surveys: This site has a large collection of salary surveys in conjunction with lists of books to request from your local library and articles from experts.
http://jobstar.org/tools/salary/index.php
Salary.com: This site is dedicated salaries and total compensation. The Salary Wizard allows you to search for base, median and top-level earnings in hundreds of jobs for many occupational areas, and they have much of the data spun to your local jurisdiction. You can also locate helpful articles and exercises to assist you calculating benefits, stock options, bonuses (and how to get them) and even negotiations. The site also offers the opportunity to purchase a Personal Salary Report. This is a customized report targeted to your local market, your current level of experience, and the industry in which you work.
SalaryExpert.com: This site offers free access to extensive international compensation information prepared by experts. The Basic Salary Reports for the US and Canada or the International Salary Report cover many other countries, and each allows you to select a job title and region and returns a nice report showing salary averages, salary levels, benefits and cost-of-living. The Salary Expert allows you to select a job title and zip code and get a salary report.
Abbott, Langer & Associates: This site offers salary and compensation reports for over 400 benchmark jobs with current salary statistics on-line in the legal field and other fields. Also, current benefit practices and factors affecting pay are described.
Economic Research Institute (ERI): This site offers free survey and resources. To find these, select Resource then choose either Survey Sources (many free US and International compensation surveys) or More (a very large page filled with a variety of compensation resources, many of which are free).
Job Search Intelligence: This site provides free salary data along with some information on employment trends in your region, saturation for your profession, and some other data. They pull their information from various government surveys and package it with something a little different than you find on most salary sites.
http://jobsearchintelligence.com/jobseekers/
Payscale: Compares your job profile to the salary and compensation packages of people whose skills and experiences match yours. NOTE: free version, but requires you to enter an e-mail address to receive salary report.
Find Law’s Infirmation: This site collects salary information from sources such as recruiting coordinators, law firms, experts on a given market's salaries, public sources and press releases.
http://www.infirmation.com/shared/insider/payscale.tcl
Pay Check City: This site offers several online tools to calculate take home pay, gross pay, 401(k)s, bonuses etc.
Government Wage Links
Bureau of Labor Statistics: This site collects data regarding wages, unemployment and other employment trends. Search through their press releases, regional data and other areas for salary and compensation information.
Occupational Employment Statistics: The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program produces employment and wage estimates for different occupations. Select a job family from the right side, then look for the closest matching job title to get data for that profession.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management: U.S. Office of Personnel Management 2007 Salary Tables and Related Information.
http://www.opm.gov/oca/07tables/index.asp
