I think you've missed the point, eldridge. There would almost certainly be sufficient applicants if you paid them nothing as they used to. How would market forces work then - would you have to see how much they'd pay to do it? You'd probably not get anybody working at Starbucks for nothing though.
Unfortunately having said that, it doesn't seem to work particularly well. The theory usually trotted out being that you have to pay equivalent wages to top lawyers, managers etc. to get the right caliber of people in - when in reality you seem to get plenty who aren't actually capable of doing anything else as remotely high paid as being an MP.
No shortage of applicants for MPs should also equal low pay
There seems to be a shortage of applicants with any kind of principles, scruples, ethics or morality.
Grizzlygus - That's a real eye opener, I guess a "company lawyer" must be the top legal figure in an organisation?
It's not a term I've come across before, you don't think it means any (qualified legal) staff in a company's legal department?
Eldridge - I know £64k sounds like a lot of money, but I know plenty of middle managers on similar sums. I think MPs' basic salary is quite low in comparitive (and London) terms.
Still, it is time they sharpened up their act on expenses.
Well I have now that you've made me dig it out.
According that Dentists earn £31k which is ludicrous, NHS figures say £80k plus:
So I wouldn't put too much faith in the figures thisismoney quote.
"The average salary for an in-house lawyer is now £114,000, the report said."
Top flight lawyers with a decade of experience, working 60->70 hours weeks are on around that though according to my SO (who is an ex-city lawyer) but who want to have to use sleeping rooms at work most nights of the week.
Indeed not - most of them don't. Those that do tend to get paid extra.
WTF ? They get paid extra when it comes to making decisions and voting ? Now [i]that[/i] sounds a right fiddle 😯
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So I wouldn't put too much faith in the figures thisismoney quote.
Don't like thisismoney quote ? Sure you could this yourself, but :
"3. Brokers - Average Salary: £94,293" (2007)
http://www.salarytrack.co.uk/average-stockbroker-salary.html
"stockbroker £100,000" (Jan 30, 2009)
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Top flight lawyers with a decade of experience, working 60->70 hours weeks are on around that
So that will be the "average in-house lawyer" then.
According to the Times Business Desk.
I can't see how any MP can justify being able to comfortably afford to BUY a decent size house with an allowance intended for them to stay in London 2-3 nights a week. It would be cheaper for the money to be used to build an estate of studio flats, furnished by Ikea at reasonable expense and let all MP's use one when they are in London. They don't need a 3 or 4 bedroom second home if it is intended for use as overnight accomodation and they certainly don't need to own it outright when they are no longer in a job. The fact that the ALLOWANCE is around the average wage (and nearly double my wage) is disgusting.
Here's the spreadsheet of expenses: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=phNtm3LmDZEObQ2itmSqHIA
Struggled to scroll easily on my laptop, so probably easiest to use if you export as an xls file.
They get paid extra when it comes to making decisions and voting ?
Voting, no, but then that's hardly demanding - I think I might be able to manage that one. Making the decision about which way to vote, yes.
If you don't mind chrism, I would rather my MP made informed decisions rather than just turned up to vote.
The irony of complaining about the alleged lack of proper and diligent representation, whilst at the same time being apparently satisfied with nothing more than a cursory commitment to the democratic process of Parliament, [i]and[/i] resentfully denying MPs the correct tools and conditions (A studio flat kitted out by IKEA 😀 ) to their jobs; isn't lost on me.
Make your minds up. What sort of MPs do you want ffs ?
Gotta say - I'm bleeding glad some of the divs on here ain't running country 🙄
Why do they need use of more than a studio flat? It's better than a hotel room as they'd have a kitchen and more space
If you don't mind chrism, I would rather my MP made informed decisions rather than just turned up to vote.
Yeah, me too - how do you suggest we make that happen?
MPs don't get paid extra to make the decision on which way to vote. Those with extra duties get paid extra - leader of the party, minister, etc. but bog-standard MPs get paid the bog-standard rate.
MPs don't get paid extra to make the decision on which way to vote.
MPs get told how to vote by the party whips so it's not like they need to spend any time thinking about such matters.