Chair of Parliament’s women and equalities committee criticises law firms over gender pay gap reporting

updated on 26 October 2018

Law firms are avoiding reporting the true extent of their gender pay gaps and regulations should be updated to force them to be transparent, Conservative MP Maria Miller has said.

Firms with 250 or more employees are required by the Gender Equality Act 2010 to reveal the average gap in salaries between women and men. But as the Law Gazette reports, the MP Maria Miller, who chairs the House of Commons women and equalities committee, has said that law firms are omitting high-earning men from their reports on the grounds that they are not technically employees.

Law firms’ partnerships are still on the whole male dominated, but partners are often not classed as employees, which enables firms to avoid including their earnings in gender pay gap reporting.

Miller said: “This needs to be reviewed to ensure there is as much transparency as possible.”

The Law Society is working on new guidance for firms on the issue of gender pay gap reporting.