The pay gap between male and female trainee solicitors has widened, new research has found, with male trainees on average earning 1,319 a year more.

Against a backdrop of a profession increasingly dominated by women at the training stage, the Law Society's annual statistical report - for the year to 31 July 2002 - found that male trainees earned 20,068, compared to 18,749 for women, a 7% difference.

In the year, male salaries increased an average of 6.7%, compared to 4.5% for women.

Yorkshire and Humberside and Greater London had higher than average differentials, although in four regions - the East Midlands, Wales, the Eastern region and the south-east - female trainees earned a little more on average than male trainees.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: 'It is encouraging that increasing numbers of women are training to be solicitors.

It is clearly important that the profession reflects the society it serves.

However, it is disturbing to see that women still face inequality in relation to their pay.

'The Solicitors Anti-Discrimination Rule prohibits unfair or unreasonable discrimination against staff on grounds of gender and we will investigate thoroughly all allegations of prejudice.'

Fiona Muxlow, chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors, said the main cause of the pay gap is likely to be that the attitude of the larger, better-paying firms towards women is discouraging them from applying to such practices, whether as trainees or after a career break.

However, she said the association has found examples of individual firms paying male trainees more than female trainees.

Almost 40% of solicitors on the Roll are women, and if current trends continue, more than half of practising solicitors will be female in a decade.

There are now 113,372 solicitors on the Roll (up 3.5% on 2000/01) and 89,045 practising solicitors (up 2.8%).

In the past 30 years, the profession has grown an average 4.1% a year.

There have been increases in the proportion of women at all stages of legal training.

As of a year ago, women made up 63.4% of those doing law degrees (and were more likely than men to get a first or 2:1), 62.7% of those on the legal practice course, 60% of those in training contracts and 55.6% of those admitted to the Roll.

Ethnic minority solicitors and students have seen similar trends.

Some 7% of solicitors were estimated to be from ethnic minorities (up from 6.6%).

The majority of ethnic minority solicitors are women.

Ethnic minorities made up 25% of those doing law degrees, 22.3% of those on the legal practice course, 18% of those in training contracts and 16.4% of those admitted to the Roll.

Only 23.5% of women are partners, compared to 51.9% of men, while 23.9% of ethnic minority solicitors are partners, compared to 43% of white Europeans.

Ms Muxlow said this disparity in women partners - reflected also when male and female solicitors of similar levels of qualification are compared - was because women had to choose between having families and their careers.

Yvonne Brown, chairwoman of the Law Society's Black Solicitors Network, said the figures showed that 'notwithstanding the hurdles in the way of ethnic minority lawyers qualifying, we're still prepared to make the commitment'.

See Editorial, (see Gazette [2003] 29 August, 14)

Neil Rose