Junior lawyers are often overworked and underpaid. Photo / 123rf
As the country faces a cost-of-living crisis the Aotearoa Legal Workers' Union has led the charge calling on law firms to become living-wage accredited. Some firms claim they pay a living wage but they're not accredited. Does it matter? Sasha Borissenko investigates.
Julia* has worked as a cleaner at a top-tier law firm in Wellington for more than 10 years. She drives every evening from Porirua to complete a four-hour shift at the firm and then another at a living-wage accredited Government agency.
At the firm she's paid $21.50 an hour, 30c above minimum wage. For her other job, she will get a pay rise when the living-wage rate increases to $23.65 an hour in September.
Just last week she paid $14 to park in town between 5-8pm, she says. Working nights means she misses out on family time, school meetings, and sports games.
"I've got good relationships with staff but they don't know how much I get paid. I don't want to ask for more because I don't want them to have a reason to get rid of me.
"People don't understand how much work the cleaners do because they don't see us. They'll come in and just see nice clean buildings or they'll see a crumb on a desk and complain about it."
According to Living Wage Movement Aotearoa, to become accredited employers must ensure all workers and contractors are paid a living wage and no changes are made to employment conditions or working hours. The process includes monitoring and reporting. Employees must also be provided with access to a union.
Living Wage Aotearoa chairperson Gina Lockyer says when businesses consider their payroll, it's easy to forget their contracted and unseen workforce, like cleaners and security guards.
Whether workers save or spend their living wage, they're given breathing room and agency where their quality of life is improved, she says.
"[W]e hear stories of how they're finally able to give up their second or third job. This means more time with their families, or to focus on their home life."
E tū organiser Shane Pasene says for cleaning and other contracting services it's a race to the bottom. The tendering process for contracting services means companies will choose the cheapest deal.
Realistically, contracting companies are incentivised to hire fewer people and to demand the work be completed in the same number of hours without overtime.
"Living-wage accreditation ensures this doesn't happen. It's so important for vulnerable workers with little bargaining power. And these people were our frontline workers during Covid-19.
"Just drive along Lambton Quay or Shortland St [in Auckland] after five and you'll see cleaning company vans driving up and down, with undervalued workers getting ready to start a night shift. It's not right."
It's not the responsibility of the contracting company, but the client hiring those services, he says.
That's why last year the union approached Simpson Grierson - which does legal work for living-wage accredited Wellington City Council - to make changes last year. They are still waiting for a response, he says.
Simpson Grierson senior communications manager Joanne Fullam said the firm pays at least a living wage to everyone, including all of its contractors.
In November 2021 the firm gave written instructions to its outsourced cleaning contractor in Wellington to ensure the firm paid living wages from January 1, 2022.
"We have now double-checked with our Wellington cleaning company and it appears they haven't implemented our instructions."
"We are very disappointed about this oversight, and we have given them immediate instructions to correct the mistake and back pay the difference to anyone affected."
Dentons Kensington Swan chair Hayden Wilson said the firm invests heavily in its staff and wellbeing, paying all staff above the living wage. "We are considering whether there is value in obtaining living-wage accreditation.
DLA Piper head of marketing and business development Natalie Chapman said it was pleased to confirm that all of its directly employed staff were on the living wage.
The firm intended to become living-wage accredited and it was in the process of assessing that all indirectly paid workers - including outsourced suppliers - were on a living wage or on agreed milestones, she said.
"While we are interested in what our clients do in respect of their workforces, the decision to pay the New Zealand Living Wage is entirely our own and is consistent with our firm's values."
Russell McVeagh CEO Jo Avenell confirmed the firm paid a living wage to all of its employees.
"We support the Living Wage movement and are currently looking into the accreditation process, including discussing this with our suppliers."
Bell Gully communications adviser Aia Jawad said the firm operates in a competitive market and reviews salary levels across the firm regularly. The annual review process, for example, draws on an independent remuneration survey, as well as other reference points including the living wage.
"We have a transparent remuneration, rewards and bonus policy which sets out our bonus criteria. These are based on moderated processes to ensure fair treatment across the firm.
"Work levels and leave balances are reported on monthly, not just to recognise performance, but to ensure that if our people are required to work longer hours to meet client needs they are well supported.
"We look to provide a fair working environment in which our people are a key priority, and there is a continual process of review and engagement with our team." The firm did not speak to whether it provides a living wage to all employees.
*Jack worked at a top-tier law firm last year. While the pay wasn't at the level of having to buy noodles, a third of his salary went to rent, alone.
According to the Aotearoa Legal Workers' Union 2021 employment report the median salary for a graduate position was $57,230. This followed a drive to increase wages among junior lawyers where it was $50,000 the previous year.
"[Before the junior salary increases last year] I have no idea how I managed to get by, or how anyone managed to get by on the wages, which if you worked a few hours beyond your contracted hours you'd definitely be breaching a living wage. Any much more than that you'd be breaching a minimum wage."
The firm purported to pay a living wage but it wasn't living wage accredited.
"Being accredited means there's monitoring and reporting. You might be told you're getting a living wage but we have no way of knowing that's true.
"There's a general claim that employers monitor our hours for wellbeing but that's not consistent with people's experiences on the ground. I know a lot of people who've worked massive weeks on end and they're not tapped on the shoulder and checked on.
"The power differential between junior lawyers and partners is such that it creates a huge barrier for junior lawyers to initiate conversations to be paid overtime. As responsible employers, partners should start those conversations around pay, and to ensure staff don't burn out."
Victoria University of Wellington Law Students' Association was one of the 12 signatories in an Aotearoa Legal Workers' Union letter addressed to 47 law firms calling them to become living wage accredited.
President Manraj Singh Rahi says the association - which advocates for law students - believes it's important that when people graduate and enter the workforce they're valued for their knowledge, their skills, and their time.
"We know that students are increasingly finding it hard to buy cheese and the like. It's getting harder and harder for students to make ends meet as the cost of living increases.
It means students are having to pick up part-time work and they're working more and more hours each week just to afford rent. Having to cram more into a single week can impact students' university performance and their mental health, he says.
If students are paid properly as part of a legal internship or other work it helps to contribute to improve student wellbeing. In turn, it creates better graduates, he says.
"If people are engaged at university and are passionate and not burnt out, they're going to do better in the workforce."
Having worked in a living wage accredited law firm himself, Singh Rahi says it played a big part in his decision to want to work there.
"I know that if they're willing to pay someone a living wage it means that they're willing to treat you right when other things happen. It indicates that their values align more closely with mine so I'm going to have a better time working there."
There are currently 12 legal employers that are living-wage accredited employers. These include: Duncan Cotterill, MinterEllisonRuddWatts, Buddle Findlay, MC (previously known as Meredith Connell), Anderson Lloyd, Anthony Harper, Presland and Co Lawyers, Darroch Forrest Lawyers, Wesley Jones, Henry Hughes Law and Intellectual Property, Black Door Law, and Lyall & Thornton Barristers and Solicitors.
MC people and capability director Cushla Hill says accreditation underlined the firm's commitment that everyone working must earn at least enough to live on.
What's important is that it requires suppliers to guarantee the same, she says. It also forces the firm to keep an eye on younger salaried employees working extra hours.
"Sometimes that's unavoidable, but our public commitment means we need to make sure when people do work extra hours, it is not for more than a relatively brief time, and that they take TOIL to compensate.
"There is no downside to Meredith Connell or other law firms becoming accredited Living Wage employers."
Black Door Law director and principal Caro Rieger launched the firm almost two years ago and becoming accredited was a priority.
"My view is that everyone employed either directly or indirectly should receive remuneration that allows them to live with dignity.
"We put people at the centre of what we do. Every business tries to make a profit but we're people over profit. I would much rather pay everyone in my team fairly than reduce salaries so I can make a bit more."
It makes sense that partners who carry the most risk should be compensated but equally a living wage is a way to fix the somewhat broken traditional firm structure, she says.
"Remuneration is just one part of a matrix of valuing people. It's not just about retaining good people but attracting good people. We try to be socially responsible and this is an area where we can be. We don't always get it perfect but we do try."
MinterEllisonRuddWatts human resources director Christine Brotherton says the firm - officially accredited in August last year - was part of a wider sustainability strategy.
"It was a no-brainer. We talk about vision and values here and this was an example where we could walk the talk."
It means that all contracts specify that anyone working for the firm, directly or indirectly, must be paid a living wage, even if they're filling in at short notice, she says.
The accreditation - which costs roughly $3000 a year, she says - is also something that can be presented to clients "so that maybe it can also help other organisations follow suit". "We want to contribute to a greater movement."
While lifting wages means it costs the business cash, it's not a concern, she says. "You can see it as an expense but it's what we stand for so we prioritise it as part of our budgets."
In comparison, the banking sector became New Zealand's first living wage accredited industry in 2020.
New Zealand Bankers' Association (NZBA) Roger Beaumont said by becoming the first Accredited Living Wage industry, banking moved more than 1800 people onto the living wage.
"It has brought benefits to those families and continues to be supported by all members of the New Zealand Bankers' Association. We encourage all industries to, where possible, pay the living wage to their employees and contractors.
NZBA research shows almost 80 per cent of New Zealanders think the banking industry paying the living wage is a good idea and important.
"New Zealanders clearly want their businesses to step up and pay a fair and decent wage. It's the right thing to do."
The council has also been served with judicial review proceedings.