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Barristers’ pay

GENDER PAY GAP

Barristers’ pay

Women barristers earn 34% less than men according to a report published by the Bar Council in October last year (Barrister earnings by sex and practice area – 2022 update). These latest figures reveal a slight improvement on the figures for 2020, when women earned 39% less than men but, startlingly, the data shows that between 2000 and 2020 the gap between men’s and women’s earnings at the Bar actually increased. The report reveals that while women barristers now earn more than men barristers in Defamation and are closing the gap in other practice areas, as Chair of the Bar Council, Mark Fenhalls KC, said: “This year’s data analysis shows there remains a long way to go to close the earnings gap.” The gap is widening in some practice areas and is widest in higher-earning practice areas, standing at 51% in Commercial and Financial Services.

This was disheartening reading for women in the profession, particularly in the year when we celebrated the centenary of the first women being called to the Bar (Legal Women, November 2022). Among the first women to be called to the Bar, in November 1922, was Beatrice Davy. In a careers advice book for girls published in 1928, she warned that: ‘For a woman who must earn her own living the Bar is the very last profession in the world.’ Although significant progress has been made by women in the legal profession since then, a report prepared by Gapsquare for Next 100 Years in April 2022 suggested that if no action is taken: “it will take 86 years for women and men working in the legal sector to achieve pay parity,” with 84% of women working in the legal profession believing that: “pay equality would not be achieved until the next generation.”

The UK government defines the gender pay gap as an equality measure that shows the difference in average earnings between women and men and since 2017 has required all employers of 250 or more employees to provide data on their organisation’s gender pay gap. As the majority of barristers are self-employed they fall outside the remit of government reporting. However, based on data submitted by 127 law firms and a survey of 229 female legal professionals, including solicitors, barrister and judges, Gapsquare and Next 100 Years reported that: “People working in the legal profession are subject to one of the largest gender pay gaps of any industry – 25.4%” (Closing the gender pay gap in the legal profession, June 2022). In comparison, the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveal that among all employees in the UK the gender pay gap is 14.9% (Gender Pay Gap in the UK: 2022)

We can’t just wait for change. It’s up to all of us to recognise inequalities and take steps to tackle them.

– Mark Fenhalls KC, Chair of the Bar Council

In many ways the legal sector is truly innovative, leveraging new technologies to work more efficiently and grappling with pressing issues head on. But as our report shows, it is falling behind in other ways and without action, the gender pay gap in the legal profession will never close.

– Dr Zara Nanu MBE, CEO of Gapsquare

The Bar Council, Gapsquare and Next 100 Years all agree that action is required to identify and tackle the barriers to equality. One of the major barriers to pay parity identified by the Bar Council was the uneven distribution of work and the predominance of women in lower paid areas of practice. Projects initiated by the Bar Council’s modernising the Bar programme therefore seek to tackle fair distribution of work, including briefing practices, marketing opportunities, and monitoring.

Through the Bar Council’s modernising the Bar programme we are focused on evidence-based and practical actions to tackle inequalities at the Bar.

– Mark Fenhalls KC, Chair of the Bar Council

Another barrier to pay parity identified by Gapsquare and Next 100 Years is the focus in the legal profession on experience or service time which: “disproportionately impacts women, who often take maternity leave and then return to work part-time to allow them more time to raise their family.” Instead, Gapsquare and Next 100 Years identify four recommendations for action including focussing on performance not experience when determining pay and promotion.

Since women were first admitted to the legal profession there have been, as Dana Denis Smith, Founder of Next 100 Years said: “many great strides towards equality within this sector, but as our report shows, there is still far to go.” With the measures now in place by the Bar Council, and if the recommendations identified by Gapsquare and Next 100 Years are implemented, hopefully it will not be another 100 years before pay equality is achieved. ■

Katie Broomfield

Katie Broomfield

Postgraduate Researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London and co-author of First: 100 Years of Women in Law

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