How English language skills affect salary levels

Knowledge of English increases salary by 38% - Work.ua study

Claiming a promotion and receiving a higher salary are opportunities for people who know English. We'll tell you in which industry this pattern is valid.

Recently, Work.ua conducted a study of the legal labor market. It turned out that English language skills play a key role in this field. In particular, 15% of vacancies in the category of "Law" require knowledge of this language.

Work.ua analyzed what level of language proficiency employers expect from job seekers:

• 1% - elementary;
• 32% - intermediate;
• 21% - above average;
• 38% - advanced;
• 8% - fluent.

As you can see, the beginner level does not provide significant advantages in the labor market. This is logical, because it is not enough to use the language in the professional sphere.

Who exactly needs to learn English?

Adetailed analysis of positions has shown that the language opens the way to management positions and modern areas of law. These are the following positions:

• Head of the legal department;
• international lawyer
• foreign trade lawyer
• Intellectual property lawyer;
• Lawyer for international grant programs;
• Personal data protection lawyer (GDPR);
• Compliance risk assessment lawyer;
• IT lawyer;
• lawyer for innovative business (in the field of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, Fintech, etc;)
• corporate lawyer;
• Tax lawyer/attorney;
• Antitrust lawyer.

Law firms, IT companies, and public organizations are most often looking for lawyers with English language skills.

Although the competition for vacancies requiring English language skills is in line with the average, it is not easy for companies to find relevant candidates. In April 2024, only 3 vacancies in the Law category received no responses from job seekers. All of them required an advanced level of English. In one of the vacancies, the company was looking for a healthcare lawyer, and in the other two - an immigration lawyer.

"English language skills are what the legal market complains about the most, because the level of English of candidates leaves much to be desired. An employer can train young legal professionals, give them more knowledge and practice in the legal field. But we can't force them to learn and improve their English," says Tetiana Blagodir, HR Manager at Gramatsky & Partners Law Firm.

Does the level of knowledge of job seekers meet the expectations of employers? 35% of candidates indicated that they speak English. At the same time, their level is as follows:

• 24% - elementary;
• 53% - intermediate;
• 6% - above average;
• 16% - advanced;
• 1% - fluent.

As we can see, job seekers mostly have beginner and intermediate English, while employers need people with above intermediate and advanced levels.

English proficiency has a direct impact on income - the average salary in the Law category with English proficiency in April 2024 was UAH 27,500, which is 38% higher than the average salary in the category.

English also affects the salary expectations of job seekers. While the average salary for entry-level and intermediate skills is UAH 20,000, job seekers with above-average skills expect to earn UAH 25,000. Candidates with advanced English want to earn at least UAH 30,000.

Candidates with fluent English, on the other hand, unexpectedly indicated a desired salary of UAH 22,500. A more detailed analysis showed that a large proportion of these job seekers are applying for below-average positions, such as paralegals or attorneys.