Pay in the legal sector
Recent
Law Society statistics show that the legal profession has a large gender gap. The average annual salary for male solicitors was £60,000, whereas for women it was just £41,000 – a difference of £19,000, or 32%.
Even after various factors, such as regional differences, size of firm, breaks in career, hours worked and area of law worked, are taken into account there remains a 7.6% difference in pay.
Traditionally women have found it hard to progress in the law. Today, while 60% of those entering the legal profession are women, barely
1 in 5 of practising women solicitors are partners, this compares unfavourably with practising male solicitors nearly 1 in 2 of whom are partners. Out of 19 partners at Leigh Day & Co, 12 are women, just over 60%.
Equality Bill
The Government is proposing to introduce an Equality Bill in the next Parliamentary session. This is likely to include a range of measures aimed at tackling the private sector gender gap. Leigh Day & Co welcomes the Government's intention to tackle workplace discrimination but, based on information currently released by the Government on the contents of the proposed Bill, is aware that it is likely that the the Bill may have only a limited impact on the private sector gender gap.
Gagging clauses
Proposed measures include the outlawing of so-called gagging clauses that some businesses use in their employment contracts. These explicitly ban all employees from discussing how much they are paid. Currently, one in three employers prohibit internal or external discussion about pay in this way. That said, even where no such prohibitions have been in place, British reticence about discussing salaries has meant that most employees are ignorant about their colleagues' earnings. Therefore, until all firms are forced to make public details on how much they pay all staff, gender pay inequalities are likely to remain a problem.
Pay audits
Another measure in the proposed Equality Bill may go some way to addressing this by requiring private sector companies who have contracts to carry out public services, to conduct pay audits. These audits will identify the salaries of employees. Approximately 30% of UK companies have contracts with the public sector all of whom will be affected by these proposed changes.
Recruitment
In terms of recruitment and selection, the Bill will allow employers to discriminate in a positive way in favour of a female candidate for a job over an otherwise equal male candidate. However, at present, it remains far from clear how this will operate in practice.
If you think that you are suffering from discrimination in the workplace please contact
Chris Benson.
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