The purpose of legislation that requires businesses with a headcount of 250 people or more to disclose gender pay gap data is not to enforce an annual round of self-flagellation. The transparency that gathering and publishing information provides aims at driving change.
Yet the response of some elite firms to the first year of mandatory reporting, in 2018, was to meet the letter, but not the spirit, of the law. While equity partnership in such firms is the glittering prize that many junior lawyers aim for, some firms excluded partner earnings from their first report.
Slaughter and May, for example, reported a median pay gap of 38.5% – but its exclusion of partners earned the firm derision in parliament and the press. In 2019, suitably chastened, the firm included partners – and the gap jumped to 63.6%. In common with many firms, Slaughter and May also chose to measure its race and ethnicity gap (51.1% in 2019).