Review: Bridging the Gender Pay Gap in Law Firms by Stephanie Hawthorne,
published by Global Law and Business Ltd 2018 ISBN 9781787422124
published by Global Law and Business Ltd 2018 ISBN 9781787422124
The special report, Bridging the Gender Pay Gap in Law Firms, provides timely and topical insights that can not only assist Law Firm management individually but also lead to more awareness and subsequent improvement in the implementation of transparency and fairness in the legal sector as a whole. It demonstrates comprehensively -through commentary, case studies and reference to key sources as well as conclusions - that this remains a matter of real concern in the Twenty First Century. As the Author states at the outset in the Introduction “Excessive executive pay and the gender pay gap are at root an issue of fairness. It is unacceptable that in 2018 men and women are rewarded so differently for doing the same jobs”.
This insightful publication considers the Gender Pay Reporting regulatory framework as set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 which require employers with 250 or more employees to publish information relating to the gender pay gap in their organizations. The transparency requirement covers gender differences between average hourly rates and average bonus payments, as well as the proportions receiving bonuses and the relative proportions of male and female employees in each quartile pay band of the workforce. The Author reports upon the law and the gender pay gap data, various gender pay gap narratives, on achieving parity and the barriers to achieving parity, good practice in law firms including case studies, the government recommendations to tackle the gender pay gap and how far the gender pay gap exercise is worthwhile.
Complete with relevant quotations and views and government guidance on reporting and making the appropriate calculations, this publication is an extremely useful and practical contribution to the discussion in the U.K. in particular. I have also found it to be very helpful in order to understand the current position as regards gender pay discrepancies and how far it is indeed a virtuous circle when firms address this sensitive issue by being more transparent and proactive in bridging the gap. The report clearly shows that improvement is long overdue and that the reasons or excuses relating to recruitment, less assertive females, the maternity leave and childcare or family responsibilities are now historic. Effective action can have clear potential advantages including recruitment and winning and retaining clients.
This analysis is a vital and essential tool to be recommended to those who wish to grasp the key concerns in this major debate on equality.
Dr Linda S Spedding
This insightful publication considers the Gender Pay Reporting regulatory framework as set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 which require employers with 250 or more employees to publish information relating to the gender pay gap in their organizations. The transparency requirement covers gender differences between average hourly rates and average bonus payments, as well as the proportions receiving bonuses and the relative proportions of male and female employees in each quartile pay band of the workforce. The Author reports upon the law and the gender pay gap data, various gender pay gap narratives, on achieving parity and the barriers to achieving parity, good practice in law firms including case studies, the government recommendations to tackle the gender pay gap and how far the gender pay gap exercise is worthwhile.
Complete with relevant quotations and views and government guidance on reporting and making the appropriate calculations, this publication is an extremely useful and practical contribution to the discussion in the U.K. in particular. I have also found it to be very helpful in order to understand the current position as regards gender pay discrepancies and how far it is indeed a virtuous circle when firms address this sensitive issue by being more transparent and proactive in bridging the gap. The report clearly shows that improvement is long overdue and that the reasons or excuses relating to recruitment, less assertive females, the maternity leave and childcare or family responsibilities are now historic. Effective action can have clear potential advantages including recruitment and winning and retaining clients.
This analysis is a vital and essential tool to be recommended to those who wish to grasp the key concerns in this major debate on equality.
Dr Linda S Spedding