Just over a third of Brazilian lawyers have an individual monthly income of up to two minimum wages from practicing law. In other words, 34% of them earn up to R$2,824 per month.
ADV profile collected data from more than 20 thousand OAB subscribers
In the range between two and five minimum wages (from R$2,824 to R$7,060) are 30% of lawyers. Those who earn between five and 20 minimum wages (R$7,060 to R$28,240) represent 15% of the total. The numbers do not take into account income from activities other than law.
If monthly family (and not individual) income is taken into account, 14% of lawyers are in the range of up to two minimum wages and 31%, in the range of two to five minimum wages. This means that 45% of lawyers have a monthly family income of up to R$7,060.
Another 26% have a family income between five and ten minimum wages (R$7,060 to R$14,120). The range above ten minimum wages is reserved for 22% of lawyers, of which 13% have a family income between ten and 20 minimum wages. 9% earn more than R$28,240.
Under these conditions, 52% of lawyers believe that the general conditions for practicing law have been getting worse, although 54% rate their degree of satisfaction with their professional activity from seven to ten. The average satisfaction rate is 6.3.
The data comes from the 1st Demographic Study of Brazilian Law (ADV Profile), launched last Friday (26/4). The research was commissioned by the Federal Council of the OAB to the Center for Innovation, Administration and Judiciary Research at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV Justiça).
Professor Antonio Lavareda, president of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Social, Political and Economic Research (Ipespe), was invited to technically coordinate the project.
Furthermore, the planning, questionnaire and data collection were directly monitored by OAB experts, who co-authored the study.
FGV applied online self-response questionnaires, which could be accessed by all OAB subscribers. The research sample is 20,885 respondents, out of just over 1.37 million lawyers registered with the entity.
X-ray of the legal profession
The survey showed that women are the majority in Brazilian law. Today, women make up 50% of this professional field, while men make up 49%. Other gender identities (non-binary people, transgender people, transvestites and others) represent around 1%.
More than half of lawyers (55%) are between 24 and 44 years old. Another 24% are 45 to 59, and 21% are 60 or older. The average age of lawyers is 44 years old.
64% of lawyers declare themselves to be white. 33% are black, distributed between mixed race (25%) and black (8%). About 1% are indigenous or yellow. In the Brazilian population as a whole, the proportion is 43% white, 45% mixed race, 10% black and 1% yellow or indigenous.
The average time working as a lawyer is 13 years, while the average time registered with the OAB is 12 years. In the higher family income brackets, there is a greater concentration of professionals who have been registered with the OAB for a longer period of time.
The study showed that 72% of Brazilian lawyers work as freelancers. On the other hand, 4% of those registered with the OAB are unemployed.
While 46% of lawyers only work in capitals and metropolitan regions, 42% work only in the interior. 11% work in both.
Home office is a reality for 43% of lawyers. Among the self-employed, this number rises to 51%.
Civil Law is the main area of practice for 26% of lawyers. Next come Family and Succession, with 14%; Labor, with 12%; and Social Security, with 11%.
More than a quarter (29%) of lawyers say they have had their prerogatives violated or their fees demeaned. Of this total, only 24% formalized a complaint to the OAB. Among those who formalized, only 23% declared having received support from the entity.
Click here to read the study
