Following Suite

Get it... cuz they're lawyers??

Okay, bad pun. I'm pretty sure that this new generation of lawyers whose starting salaries are half what they used to be don't think it's funny either.

This is, of course, the prevalent theme of the 2010's in pretty much all industries. Take, for example, my job:

Before I got hired, there were 4 people in my position, doing -less- work than I'm currently doing. Now there is only me... and I'm getting paid $5.50 less per hour than the lowest-paid person that I replaced! On top of that, my department hasn't given employee's a penny raise since 2002, and we've only had one cost of living raise in 2006 -- of .5%!

Now, granted initially I didn't feel too bad for those lawyers who aren't getting their tenure-track 120,000 starting salary anymore. After all, 60K a year is far more than I'm sure I'll -ever- see in my life, so it's hard for me to muster up too much sympathy. However, like myself and many other people who find themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of trying to start their career right now, I can sympathize with their frustrations... Nothing is more devastating than to diligently work your entire young life away for the prospects of a better future, only to have that robbed from you at no fault of your own. 60,000 might be a living wage for me, but then again, who knows what the average debt of a law school student these days is... I'm sure it's probably greater than mine.

Makes you wonder what things are going to be like for the rest of us if you have to be a fucking blood-sucking-lawyer just to earn what used to be a pretty standard middle-class salary though, doesn't it?