White & Case has become the latest City practice to bow to pressure to include partners in gender pay gap reports, reporting a mean gap of 64.8% across the entire headcount.

When partners are not included the mean pay gap is 21.2%, down from 24% in the 2017 report. The firm said it is increasing the number of female partners.

Across all employees, excluding partners, 41.4% of men received a bonus and 47.8% of women. Last year 46% of men got a bonus and 44% of women.

In its 2018 report, the firm has also given a breakdown of contract partners, who have a fixed salary, and equity partners. The mean gap among contract partners is 3.7% while in equity it is 34.9%.

As is the case with most firms the figures are somewhat skewed by the fact that the vast majority of the workforce in the ‘lower quartile’ pay bracket are women. At White & Case, women account for 75% of the lowest quartile and 62% of the lower middle quartile. By contrast, men make up 53% of the highest quartile.

The firm said it remains committed to ’addressing imbalances in pay’ including through unconscious bias training and mandated ‘gender balanced shortlists’ when recruiting for roles.

Under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations all organisations with 250 or more employees are required to report their pay gap. However, some law firms did not include partners in their reports as they are not technically employees.

The last round of gender pay gap reporting, which concluded in April this year, prompted MPs to criticise both the wording of the legislation and some law firms for being disingenuous.

The Law Society said that all law firms, including those with fewer than 250 employees, should report their figures and include partners.