The new minimum wage: 160K

Well, you need to be a first-year associate at one of the big law firms in town. In just the last week or so, Sheppard Mullin; Munger, Tolles; Manatt, Phelps; Sidley Austin; and Pillsbury Winthrop Pittman announced plans to boost salaries to $160,000 (Manatt isn’t instituting the new rate until next January). A few weeks earlier, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and O'Melveny & Myers did the deed. The new first-year standard got going in NY at the beginning of the year – that’s where these things usually start – and since then a bunch of A-list California firms have followed suit (L.A.’s Quinn Emanuel started the ball rolling locally). It’s an effort to attract the best and brightest graduates – even though it’s caused some grousing among the partners who will be missing out on a few more bucks, especially since many of these entry-level types leave within three years. That’s well before the firms have a chance for much payback from their rookie investments. Above the Law