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Should Articling Students Receive a Minimum Wage? Mixed Reactions to $620/Week Minimum Compensation



On April 28, 2022, the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) voted 25 to 24 to implement a $620 per week mandatory minimum compensation for articling students. The LSO’s Convocation recently approved the motion on October 27. The policy will come into effect in May 2023.


Compensation has been set at $620 per week. This amount was chosen based on the low-income measurement in Canada ($500/week), the average income for same-age university graduates ($800/week), and the minimum wage for a 40-hour work week in Ontario ($620/week).[1]


Despite the minimum compensation being “mandatory,” articling principals may apply for an exemption. The exemption is available for all placement types, including for-profit firms and not-for-profit clinics. The LSO will determine whether to grant an exemption to an articling principal based on three criteria:


· quality of training experience

· inability to pay, and

· a clean, recent discipline history.[2]


The minimum compensation and exemption are an attempt to balance two goals, namely improving income security for articling students while maintaining the availability of articling opportunities. Benchers remain divided on how well the changes achieve this balance.


On the one hand, the changes were introduced to address income security and equity concerns. Committee Chair Barbara Murchie, who presented the motion to Convocation, stated “the minimum compensation policy is intended to address barriers to the profession, including issues related to exploitation and inequity during experiential training.” In particular, Murchie noted that unpaid and underpaid placements can be a barrier to entering the legal profession for low-income students. In the 2020-2021 period, an estimated 130 to 150 articling students in Ontario were paid less than $20,000 per year or were completely unpaid.[3] According to Bencher Atrisha Lewis, it is up to the LSO to protect articling students, given the exclusion of articling students from the Employment Standards Act and the power imbalance between articling students and their principals.[4]


On the other hand, the LSO considered the loss of articling opportunities that might result from mandatory compensation. According to Murchie, the number of articling positions has failed to keep up with the number of candidates over the past five years. She noted there are currently 500 candidates from the last three years searching for articling positions.[5] Bencher Gerard Charette thinks the mandatory minimum compensation will worsen this problem. He believes “minimum wage is a real job killer” and the profession should instead focus on “getting careers launched.”[6] Bencher Lubomir Poliacik noted that small firms struggle to break even on articling students. He suggested that articling is “not a job” but rather training and education.[7] The narrow 25 to 24 vote makes it clear that Charette and Poliacik are not alone in their concerns.


Convocation settled on $620 per week with an exemption procedure as a compromise between these two perspectives. However, LSO Benchers remain divided on whether the $620 is just right, too much, or not enough.


The LSO will review the mandatory minimum and exemption framework after three years. It will be interesting to see whether these changes manage to strike a balance between ensuring income security and placement opportunities for articling students.


-AKS


[1] Amanda Jerome, “LSO approves $620/week mandatory minimum compensation for articling, LPP students” (28 October 2022), online: The Lawyers Daily https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/employment/articles/40733/lso-approves-620-week-mandatory-minimum-compensation-for-articling-lpp-students.


[2] Ibid.


[3] Priya Bhatia, “Experiential Training Enhancements: Professional Development and Competence Committee” (26 November 2021), online “Experiential Training Enhancements” (26 November 2021) The Law Society of Ontario Professional Development and Competence Committee https://s3.amazonaws.com/tld-documents.llnassets.com/0035000/35569/lso%20report%20november%202021.pdf.


[4] Terry Davidson, “LSO votes in mandatory minimum pay for articling students” (29 April 2022), online: The Lawyers Daily https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/35569/lso-votes-in-mandatory-minimum-pay-for-articling-students?article_related_content=1.


[5] Jerome, supra note 1.


[6] Amanda Jerome, “LSO divided on paying articling students minimum wage, defers decision to provide time for input” (6 December 2021), online: The Lawyers Daily https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/31688/lso-divided-on-paying-articling-students-minimum-wage-defers-decision-to-provide-time-for-input?article_related_content=1.


[7] Ibid.

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