Beaten only by investment banking 🤑
New research shows that law is one of the most lucrative graduate careers, with new starters able to expect a salary of £46,000.
That is, however, a few grand shy from the £50,000 their investment banking-minded peers can expect to earn upon starting out.
These were some of the findings produced by High Fliers Research, which examined the country’s top grad employers (based on The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2020) and how much they’ll pay their new recruits this year. The figures don’t include additional benefits such as bonuses.
Law did, however, beat consulting in this year’s research: grads venturing into strategy consulting firms can expect to earn £45,000, on average.
The highest-paying employers are pretty much all in the legal sector, according to the research, and include White & Case (£50,000), Clifford Chance (£48,000), Baker McKenzie (£48,000) and Linklaters (£47,000). Beyond law, tech company TPP and retailer Aldi pay graduate starting salaries of £45,000 and £44,000, respectively.
Further down the table (below) banking & finance grads can expect to earn the same as those entering the media industry (£32,500), whilst the average salary of those starting in consumer goods and tech also matches (£32,000).
Graduates entering the public sector earn the lowest in the rankings (£24,200), followed by the armed forces (£27,800) and engineering (£28,000).
The report also showed that grad salaries have been stagnant for over five years, with the average starting salary for grads (£30,000) not increasing since 2015.
Median starting salaries for grads in 2021
| Industry | Median starting salary |
| Investment banking | £50,000 |
| Law | £46,000 |
| Consulting | £45,000 |
| Oil & energy | £40,000 |
| Retailing | £36,800 |
| Banking & finance | £32,500 |
| Media | £32,500 |
| Consumer goods | £32,000 |
| Technology | £32,000 |
| Accounting & professional services | £30,600 |
| Engineering & industrial | £28,000 |
| Armed forces | £27,800 |
| Public sector | £24,200 |