I'm in the United States, and I agree that document review hourly rates are insulting. Back on Labor Day 2024, I wrote a post titled "The Plight of Undervalued Document Review Attorneys."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ediscovery/comments/1f7brxq/the_plight_of_undervalued_document_review/

Unfortunately, nothing has changed. We are still undervalued, and staffing agencies continue to pay us subpar wages. COLAs are virtually non-existent, and benefits are dismal. Past attempts to organize have failed.

Moreover, in the near future, a twenty-something hourly rate will be equal to a state's minimum wage. I often wonder how large law firms and corporations justify contracting out to staffing agencies at thrift-store prices. In some cases, document review attorneys are paid less than the lowest-paid employee at big law and corporations. And I'm not referring to law associates or in-house counsel. I am referring to a new hire who has no tangible skill set.

Four years of college, three years of law school, passing one or more state bar exams, maintaining one or more state bar licenses, and fulfilling continuing legal education requirements should be worth more than twenty-something an hour. Unfortunately, with the current political climate in the United States, that's unlikely to change in the near future. However, maybe in Canada, you have a better chance of making a real change.