This week the Gazette publishes the result s of a survey of solicitors' earnings (see pp 16-17) conducted by the Law Society's research and policy planning unit (RPPU).

The research, which is part of a rolling programme of data collection in relation to the structure, organisation and finances of private practice, is required reading for solicitors at all levels.

The legal profession has suffered from a lack of reliable information on earnings.

The traditional secrecy that has surrounded remuneration has militated particularly against women.

Until the RPPU's survey, there was no concrete evidence to show that women were getting a raw deal.

The survey found significant differences between the median earnings of male and female solicitors at each grade.

At equity partner level, for example, the findings were that women earned on average £58,000 a year compared with a figure of £75,000 for men.Such disparity reflects very poorly on a profession that ought to be the staunchest observer of equal opportunities.

And, in fairness, most firms would find inexcusable a pay disparity based on gender.

However, a lack of transparency about pay within firms can lead unwittingly to inequality.

The RPPU's research should be a trigger to all firms to review their pay policies; women solicitors are bound to benefit in the process.

The findings also have important pointers for hard-pressed legal aid practitioners.

For the first time, they have data showing the impact of legal aid work on earnings.

The findings show clearly that legal aid work has a cost.

For all grades of fee-earner, earnings were higher in those firms that did no legal aid work at all.

Particularly stark was the difference between the median earnings of assistant solicitors in firms doing no legal aid work and those deriving more than a quarter of their earnings from legal aid -- £30,000 compared with £20,000.

For firms teetering on the brink of applying for a legal aid franchise, and considering whether to throw their hats into the ring for block contracts or withdraw altogether from legal aid, the data will be invaluable.The survey should also be read carefully by young solicitors anxious to take control of their careers.

Clearly the findings show that London is where the biggest earnings are to be had and that salaried partners in the capital do not suffer the eight years' post-qualification earnings tail-off evident in the regions.

But the survey will be a useful reference point for that growing band of young solicitors who are prepared to trade earning potential for what they judge to be a better quality of life overall.

Overall, the data, which will be updated annually, is one of the most empowering tools offered to the profession by the Society in recent years.