am i being underpaid?
hi all! I'm actually a legal assistant and would like to know if my pay is low or if i'm being too ambitious, as it's my first job out of uni (I graduated early in December.) I work at a small firm as a legal assistant in Los Angeles mostly focused on employment law but do a bit of everything. I've worked for just over 6 months at the firm, and that is when they do first considerations for raises.
I do intakes, filings, book depositions, draft discovery, and all the usual admin assist tasks. Two of the other legal assistants have recently quit to go to law school, so I've taken over their specific ongoing tasks from them, such as saving everything to our internal system, coordinating vendors, etc.
I currently make $20/hr without any benefits. i feel like the work and stress it gives me especially for such a high-cost & corporate area of LA is worth more than what I'm paid right now, but it's only 6mo in and I don't have other experience to compare to. I work full time and do overtime often since I'm usually in office alone, so any physical tasks like mailing or binders have to be done by me. (Additionally, I was promised a WFH day of my choosing (everyone else's is friday) but the office is making me do Tuesdays because they need someone in office on Friday. Is this something to even bring up or should I just suck it up?)
I'd of course like to request a raise as we're encouraged to after 6mo, but I'm unsure what to realistically expect or even what to ask for - any guidance even if random would be really appreciated.