A new survey has revealed there is still a perception of there being a gender pay gap in the legal profession.

According to the 2019 ALPMA Australian Legal Industry Salary & HR Issues Survey, 40 per cent of respondents believe there is a gender pay gap in the industry.

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The survey also found that while 58 per cent of qualified lawyers are female, they represent just 19 per cent of equity partners and 38 per cent of salaried partners at Australian law firms covered by the survey.

“The perception of a gender pay gap is clear, but while 40 per cent of respondents believe there is a gender pay gap, 85 per cent of respondents said there wasn’t one at their firm,” said Emma Elliott, general manager, ALPMA.



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“Twenty-one per cent of respondents conducted a pay gap analysis in 2018 with mixed results, so there is clearly much work still to be done to understand this issue within legal firms.”

Of the 21 per cent of respondents who conducted a pay gap analysis, the survey revealed 76 per cent found there was no gender pay gap, while 24 per cent found there was, with gaps ranging from 1 per cent to 20 per cent or more.

Law firms with 75-149 staff were most likely to find gaps of between 1-5 per cent, while firms with 150+ employees were most likely to find gaps between 6-10 per cent, it said.

“It seems that the smaller firms of 1-24 employees found the least gender pay gaps, with 94 per cent finding no gaps at all,” Ms Elliott noted.

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Pay gap perception alive in law Emma Ryan Last Updated: 27 May 2019 Published: 28 May 2019