Hogan Lovells has become the first leading UK firm to confirm its junior lawyer salary rates for 2017, lifting pay for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers by 5%.

The increase takes pay for NQs up to £75,000, from last year's rate of £71,500.

The 5% rise in NQ pay comes alongside smaller rises for trainees that see the rate for first-year trainees rise by just over 2% from £43,000 to £44,000. Second-year trainee rates rise by £1,000 to £49,000.

Hogan Lovells operates merit-based pay bands for lawyers with more than one year's post-qualification experience and the firm would not confirm these rates or whether they have changed.

In a statement, Hogan Lovells said: "We currently operate a merit-based pay model with broad salary bands to ensure that we are able to take into account an individual's performance when determining salary within the relevant salary band. In addition, our lawyers have the ability to earn significant bonuses based on chargeable hours and/or a discretionary bonus."

Other UK firms are expected to announce their 2017 associate salary rates, which normally come into effect from 1 May, in the coming weeks.

Earlier this month White & Case increased its UK associate pay by up to 19%, matching the £105,000 NQ rate announced by Shearman & Sterling in March this year.

The US firm confirmed its London lawyers will receive rises of between 16% and 19%, depending on experience.

Last summer, a raft of US firms bumped up associate payscales. The increases were kicked off by Cravath Swaine & Moore, which raised base pay for its first-year lawyers by $20,000 (£14,000) to $180,000 (£124,000), with a host of firms following suit.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was among the UK firms boosting the salaries of its US associates to match the increase.