Summary: The trend of women attorneys earning less than male peers saw a large jump in 1995 and is still growing today.
It is a well-known fact that women earn less than men in the same positions. However, the pay gap between men and women has been growing in the legal profession, at least since 1975. The Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession conducted a survey of their alumni from four separate graduating classes – 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2000. The collected data showed that the pay gap between men and women in the legal industry has been growing.
The findings report that women work more hours than men but are still underrepresented in leadership positions. When looking at starting salaries, the gap between genders grew in 1995 and exploded in 2000 with men reporting an average starting income of $115,000 and women reporting an average of $85,000.
While no conclusions can be directly pointed to from the study, there are some factors that may be contributing to the gap. More women reported entering the public sector in 2000, which are areas such as government, public interest organizations, NGOs, and educational institutions. The people that conducted the study believe that some of the gap may be due to women being less willing to join the largest and most prestigious law firms that are often located in New York and usually pay the highest salaries.
A more recent study of alumni classes has not been conducted yet, but the attorney earnings report for 2007 shows the same trend. The study concludes that the more recent disparities in earnings may be due to more men working in business instead of practicing law, where they earn incomes much larger than even their highest paid law firm peers.
Source: https://bol.bna.com/harvard-study-wage-gap-for-women-worsened-over-30-years/