BIG NEWS: BIG FIRM ASSOCIATE PAY SOARS, CLIENTS DANCE IN STREETS
This just in from law.com--Big Firm Associate Pay Soars By $10K in 2006. I actually made up the part about clients dancing in the streets. Weeping at their desks is probably more like it. I've written before about how these massive costs are passed along to clients with no corresponding increase in value provided, so I won't repeat myself.
Why did I include this in the "Leadership and Management" category? Because of a quote that appears on the article--"It can be ironically self-defeating, " said Ward Bower, a principal at Altman Weil. His point--salaries compress so the incentive to stay diminishes over time. Combine that increased incentive with the already troubling statistics on attrition--78% turnover--and its little wonder that associate satisfaction has rocketed to the top of the list of management challenges. Knee-jerk salary increases appear not to be the answer.
