(Reuters) - A flurry of special bonuses isn't the only thing boosting law firm associate pay, salaries have risen as well, the National Association for Law Placement said Wednesday.

The median base salary for first-year associates at law firms of all sizes, surveyed by NALP, was $165,000 as of January 1, 2021, 6.5% higher than in 2019. The most common starting salary for first-years was $190,000, with more than half of firms with over 700 lawyers offering that as their base first-year salary in 2021, the survey found. Median pay was lowest for first-years at firms with 50 or fewer lawyer, clocking in at $85,000, according to NALP.

NALP, a career advancement group for legal professionals, conducts a survey on associate salaries every two years. Its 2021 survey had 572 responses, mostly from firms with over 250 lawyers and spread across major markets it said in a statement Wednesday.

Law firms began offering first-year associates $190,000 starting salaries in 2018, when Milbank announced that as its new pay scale. Rival firms in New York and beyond soon matched.

The growth in first-year associate compensation between 2019 and 2021 comes after many junior lawyers' salaries were slashed in 2020, as law firms implemented austerity measures to conserve cash when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Most large firms have since ended pay cuts.

In 2021, as deal volume hits record highs, the demand for associates spiked. Dozens of law firms, eager to attract and retain junior talent, have announced two-installment special bonuses this year that range from $12,000 for first-years up to $64,000 for senior associates.

That is on top of base salary. The median base salary for eighth-year associates at all firms was $225,000 in NALP's 2021 survey, about 10.3% higher than it was in 2019. The median was even higher at firms with more than 700 lawyers, hitting $260,000 in 2021, NALP found.

NALP Executive Director James Leipold said in an email that the two-year rise in associate compensation is in part tied to the "very hot, very tight market for lateral associate talent."

"Also, like previous starting salary hikes, when the base jumps as it did to $190K a number of years ago, not all firms and all offices adopt it at once," he said in the email. "It takes a couple of years to work its way through the market and part of what we are seeing is just the saturation of that $190K base settling in."

That saturation hasn't hit everywhere. NALP found geography is a key role in starting salaries, with first-year associates in the Northeast making the most and those in the Midwest making the least.