By Anita Rice


Black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors earn 17% less than white solicitors, while women solicitors earn 7.6% less than their male counterparts, new research published this week by the Law Society has revealed.



The survey, conducted by the Society's Strategic Research Unit during October last year, found white solicitors earned an average of £50,000 and BME solicitors an average of £40,000 a year - an overall pay gap of 20%.



After allowing for variables including grade, gender, firm size, region, post-qualification experience and hours worked, the salary gap narrowed to 17%.



The average yearly salary for male solicitors was £60,000 compared with £41,000 for females - a pay gap of 32%. However, after taking into account the same variables, plus work breaks taken and area of law, the pay divide dropped to 7.6%.



Michael Webster, chairman of the Black Solicitors Network, condemned the pay gap as 'startling' and called for more transparency over pay.



Noting discretionary pay awards could 'lead to anomalies', Webster called for firms to undertake internal reviews to ensure pay awards were 'at least race neutral', adding he was not aware of a single firm which had done so.



Sailesh Mehta, chair of the Society of Asian Lawyers, said the figures 'should shock all decent lawyers. No other profession would tolerate a 17% disparity in pay.'



He added: 'We will work with the Law Society and senior partners in larger firms to investigate the real causes and implement practical solutions.'



Fiona Fitzgerald, chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS), said: 'The pay gap demonstrates not only that many women are not equally rewarded for equal work, but most significantly, that women are not making the progress through the profession that they should.'



Researchers quizzed 1,201 solicitors, 9% of whom were BME solicitors and 43% were female - described as a representative sample after weighting. The overall response rate was 76% and 52% for the salary questions.



Bill Cole, Law Society research manager, described the survey as the 'most thorough and comprehensive' Chancery Lane had conducted on pay to date, and pointed to possible future research to identify underlying reasons for disparity in salaries.



The findings were released to coincide with the launch of the joint AWS and Law Society equal pay campaign.



Des Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society, said: 'We are committed to working with the AWS and BME groups to understand why these pay differentiations are so wide. The launch of the BME Forum will provide... the opportunity to look at the issues more closely and present suggestions as to how to tackle them.'