The Pay Gap In The Legal Field Is Significant

gender pay gap In March, the Census Bureau released new data in honor of Women’s History Month. Once again, among full-time, year-round civilian workers across all occupations, women were reported as earning 78.8 cents to every dollar earned by men.

The new data, compiled by the 2013 American Community Survey, organized the 2010 census data by occupation, including the legal occupations. Here, a startling number reflects the pay gap between men and women: 52.6 percent.

You read that correctly, women in the legal profession only earn 52.6 cents to the 2013-adjusted dollar of men. This was the most significant gender pay gap of all occupations surveyed.

Looking deeper into the line item, however, one notes that the “legal occupations” category included not only lawyers, but also judges, magistrates, law clerks and support staff. Is the legal profession truly only halfway to pay equality? Further analysis is needed beyond this cryptic data.

There is no shortage of studies documenting the pay gap between male and female lawyers. This includes yearly studies since 2006 of the AmLaw 200 conducted by the NAWL Foundation, the national longitudinal “After the J.D.” studies by the American Bar Foundation, the American Bar Association’s Gender Equity Task Force and numerous state studies.

READ MORE Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Published Wednesday April 8, 2015 Volume 161, No 68