Two reasons:crit_racer wrote:If B&B can pay 185k and demand more hours, how come no firms are willing to pay a little bit less and demand less hours? I'd take 120k/year (in a market-paying city) if it meant working 25% less hours. And that would be more sustainable in the longer run (less laterals, attrition, etc)
1) Your cost isn't $120k or $160k. It's X + $120k or X + $160k. Where $X is fixed costs per head and is in the neighborhood of $100k+ in a major market. So if you cut hours requirements by 25%, the necessary corresponding cut in salary is more like $65k.
2) Matters move at their own pace and teams don't scale linearly. That is to say, if you want to get a deal done in 2 weeks, and that normally require 5 associates working 60 hours a week to do it, you will not be able to get it done with 7 associates working 45 hours a week. As a partner, you'd rather have a team of 5 associates working long hours than a team of 7 associates working moderate hours.