Clifford Chance has set the new standard as it announced pay rises for trainees and junior associates.

CC is the last Magic Circle firm to raise pay in 2014. From 1 May Clifford Chance will pay NQs £67,500, up from £63,500 last year. The new wage is £2,500 higher than at Linklaters and Slaughter and May, and £3,500 more than at Allen & Overy. The widest gap is at 2PQE, where CC associates are paid £5,500 more than their A&O peers. Allen & Overy has said that it will not be raising salaries this year.

	1st seat trainee	NQ	1PQE	2PQE	3PQE
Clifford Chance	£40,500 (£39,000)	£67,500 (£63,500)	£72,500 (£69,500)	£84,000 (£78,200)	£93,500 (£87,800)
Freshfields	£40,500	£67,500 to £77,500		£87,500 to £100,000 (up to 4PQE)
Linklaters	£40,000	£65,000	£70,500	£77,500 to £82,000	£87,500 to £93,500
Slaughter and May	£39,500	£65,000	£70,000	£79,000	£89,000
Allen & Overy	£39,000	£64,000	£69,500	£78,500	£89,000

But it's not just CC raising the game. Freshfields' pay bands indicate that its 2PQEs will be paid a minimum of £87,500, which would make it the top paying Magic Circle firm at that level. And its Career Milestones structure means that all of its junior lawyers have the potential to earn the highest salaries in the Magic Circle. However, that's just potential and Freshfields does not divulge a breakdown of what it actually pays associates: but it is probably safe to assume that they are not all on £100,000.

The CC / Linklaters pay comparison is easier, simply because CC has dumped all over them. All 3PQEs at CC will be paid the same as the very top performing Linklaters 3PQE. And at 2PQE, even a dosser at CC will earn £2,000 more than the highest-paid 2PQE Links associate.

A CC junior associate yesterday

Of course there are always bonuses, which offer a chance for others to catch up. Though CC's discretionary bonus scheme is fairly hefty as the maximum bonus available to an NQ at CC is now £13,500. At 1PQE it is £21,750, at 2PQE it is £25,200 and at 3PQE it is £28,050. That's a sight more than Slaughters, where junior associate bonuses are limited to 8-10% of salary. Of course, the downside is that aspiring Nolife McMekons have to work at Canary Wharf to get them.

London Managing Partner David Bickerton said "The London office has had another good year...These salary increases and bonus awards reflect our appreciation of the consistently high-quality work of our lawyers". And turn the heat up on everyone else except the US firms.