The unceasing escalation of junior lawyer salaries continued today with a firm increasing pay for newly-qualified solicitors to £147,000, plus bonuses.

International practice Ropes & Gray will increase its London NQ salaries from the current £130,000, effective from the start of this month. The new rates are among the highest paid in this country, if not the highest.

Trainee salaries have also risen from £50,000 to £57,500 and second year trainees will earn £62,500, up from £55,000.

The firm’s London training programme, which includes an international seat and has been running since 2011, is now made up of 24 trainees working on cross-border matters.

The London office overall has grown by more than 20% over the last year and now has 160 fee-earners, including 29 partners and nine counsel.

Six-figure salaries for newly-qualified City lawyers are becoming increasingly common, as firms reward staff following largely buoyant financial results in the past year. The race to pay more also reflects the fight to retain and recruit staff in a competitive jobs market.

The likes of Hogan Lovells, Shearman & Sterling, Linklaters and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan are all members of the six-figure NQ club, with several other firms paying that once bonuses are taken into account.