Law women earn 30% less

– Men who are partners in top US law firms average a yearly income of nearly $1 million (R14 million), while women in the same jobs make a third less money, according to research released on Thursday.

The income gap between men and women has its roots in how much business they lure to their firms and their hourly rates, said Major, Lindsey & Africa, a legal search company that conducted the survey.

In the US overall, women last year working full-time earned 80% of what men earned, according to commonly cited data from the US Census Bureau.

Another recently published calculation factoring in women who leave and return to the paid work force showed women earning 49 cents for every man’s dollar. At top US law firms, the average income for male partners last year was $959 000 and $627 000 for female partners, the legal research found. –