The in-house hire versus outsourced paralegal question usually gets reduced to one number: a salary. That number is the smallest, least useful part of the comparison, and it is why so many firms underestimate what a permanent hire actually costs against a fixed-fee alternative.
How much does an in-house paralegal actually cost, beyond the salary?
A UK paralegal’s effective monthly cost typically runs 40 to 60 percent above the salary alone once employer National Insurance, minimum pension contributions, recruitment fees and desk overheads are added. On a £28,000 salary, that pushes the real monthly cost from £2,333 to somewhere between £3,300 and £3,700.
Recent salary data puts a typical UK paralegal at £24,000 to £34,000 a year outside London, with regional and London-specific figures running higher in some markets. Whatever base figure a firm is budgeting against, the salary is only the starting point for the true cost.
What does employer National Insurance actually add to the bill?
Under the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Act 2025, employers pay Class 1 National Insurance at 15 percent on earnings above the Secondary Threshold of £5,000 a year, confirmed in HMRC’s published rates and thresholds. On a £28,000 salary, that works out to roughly £3,450 a year in employer NI alone, a cost that exists purely because of the decision to employ someone directly.
What else sits on top of the salary and NI?
Auto-enrolment pension contributions add a further layer. Employers are required to contribute a minimum of 3 percent of qualifying earnings, which on a typical paralegal salary adds several hundred pounds a year. Recruitment agency fees, where an agency is used to fill the role, generally run 15 to 20 percent of first-year salary, a one-off cost of £4,200 to £5,600 on a £28,000 hire, payable whether or not the hire ultimately works out. Desk space, a case management system licence, and general overhead typically add £100 to £300 a month on top of that.
How does a fixed-fee outsourced paralegal compare?
A fixed-fee outsourced paralegal removes the National Insurance, pension, recruitment fee and overhead lines from the calculation entirely, because none of them apply under that structure. Paralegal Outsourcing UK’s Single Paralegal package runs £800 a month flat. A Team of Three runs £2,250 a month flat. A Complete Back Office starts from £3,000 a month, scoped to the work required. Full detail on what each package includes sits on the Pricing page.
Set against the £3,300 to £3,700 effective monthly cost of a single in-house hire calculated above, the Single Paralegal package represents a substantial reduction, before accounting for the weeks a new permanent hire spends becoming productive, or the risk of the hire not working out at all.
What doesn’t change, whichever route a firm takes?
Supervision responsibility does not move. Whether a firm hires in-house or works with an outsourced provider, the instructing firm directs the work and retains conduct of every matter throughout. Our Why Us page sets out the full comparison in detail, and our How It Works page explains exactly how that supervision is structured in practice when work is delegated to us.
What is the comparison a firm should actually run?
Not salary against package price. Total effective employer cost against package price, calculated on the specific role a firm is actually considering, including NI, pension, recruitment costs and overhead. For most single-hire scenarios, that fuller comparison favours a fixed-fee structure by a wide margin, and it does so before the hidden costs of a bad hire, discussed on our related article on hiring risk, are even factored in.
Where to go from here
If you want to run this comparison against your own firm’s actual numbers, our Contact page is the fastest way to start that conversation, with no obligation attached.
How does employer pension auto-enrolment factor into the real cost?
Under the Pensions Act 2008, employers must automatically enrol eligible staff and contribute a minimum percentage of qualifying earnings.
On a typical paralegal salary, that adds several hundred pounds a year on top of National Insurance, another fixed cost that a flat-fee outsourced package simply doesn’t carry, detailed in our article on the hidden cost of downtime.
What does the comparison look like for a Complete Back Office instead of a single hire?
At that scale, the comparison shifts even further in favour of outsourcing. A Complete Back Office starts from £3,000 a month, covering a range of work that would otherwise require multiple in-house hires, each carrying their own National Insurance, pension, and overhead cost.
Full detail on what falls inside that package sits on our fixed-fee back office article.
How should a firm actually run this comparison for its own numbers?
Take the salary being considered, add 15% National Insurance above the £5,000 threshold, add 3% minimum pension, add a realistic recruitment fee estimate, and add desk and software overhead.
Compare that total monthly figure against the relevant package price on our Pricing page. The gap is usually larger than firms expect before running the numbers properly.
Does this comparison change for a part-time in-house hire?
Some fixed costs scale down, recruitment fees in particular are often lower for part-time roles, but National Insurance and pension obligations still apply proportionally, and the administrative overhead of managing an employee doesn’t disappear just because the hours are reduced.
A part-time hire narrows the gap but rarely closes it entirely once every cost is counted honestly.
What about the cost of managing an underperforming hire?
This is the cost most cost comparisons miss entirely. A hire that isn’t working out costs a firm in wasted salary, management time, and the eventual cost of recruiting again, covered in detail in our article on the real cost of a bad hire.
A fixed-fee engagement carries none of that risk in the same way, since it can be adjusted or ended with notice rather than triggering a formal employment process.
Is this comparison different for a firm outside a major city?
Salaries tend to run lower outside London and other major cities, but the percentage-based costs, National Insurance, pension, scale down proportionally too, so the overall shape of the comparison holds fairly steady regardless of location.
What’s the simplest way to summarise the difference in one sentence?
An in-house hire costs the salary plus roughly 40 to 60 percent more once every obligation is counted. A fixed-fee package costs exactly what the invoice says, every month, with nothing added later.
Should cost be the only factor in this decision?
No. Continuity, control, and how quickly capacity is needed all matter too, alongside the numbers. Cost is the clearest starting point, but a good decision weighs all of it together, a framework covered fully in our hire versus outsource decision framework.
Curious what this looks like against your own numbers?
Send us your current salary band and we’ll run the comparison properly, no generic assumptions, just your figures against ours.
Confidential · No obligation · Typically a 20-minute call
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this comparison hold up for firms outside London?
Broadly yes, though regional salaries run a bit lower than the London figures quoted here. The National Insurance and pension math stays the same regardless of where you’re based, so the gap doesn’t close as much as people expect.
What if we already have a paralegal and just need occasional overflow help?
That’s what the Single Paralegal package is built for. No need to restructure your existing team, just add capacity for the weeks it’s actually needed.
Is there a contract tie-in, or can we scale down if things get quiet?
Packages run on a rolling monthly basis. Scope can be adjusted as your caseload changes, without the notice periods a permanent hire would involve.
How do we know the £800 figure doesn’t come with hidden extras?
Because the scope is agreed in writing before anything starts. What’s included is on the Pricing page, and anything outside it gets discussed, not silently added to an invoice.
