The gap was even larger when all law-related jobs were considered, with median pay for female workers in 2014 roughly half (51.6 per cent) the amount received by male workers. The salary figures, which are for full-time, year- round workers, also show that female judges, magistrates and other judicial workers earned 71.8 percent of men’s pay in those occupations.

Census Bureau spokesperson John Barker told the ABA Journal that the size of the pay gap is in large part due to the fact that women in the law are more likely to be paralegals and support workers than men, and pay in those areas is lower. But the data indicated a gender gap even within these categories, with female paralegals and legal assistants earning 94 per cent that earned by their male counterparts and female support workers making 73.7 per cent the amount earned by male support workers.

Fusion reports that, overall, the legal industry has the widest gender pay gap. Other fields with wide gender gaps include financial services sales agents, an ‘other’ category of financial specialists, aircraft mechanics and jewellers.

ABA President Laurel Bellows told Fusion that women face hurdles when trying to negotiate for better pay: ‘Are women good negotiators? Yes. But women are often labelled as greedy and aggressive and not team driven when asking for a well-deserved raise and bonus. Men who ask are viewed as strong and good negotiators hard workers worthy of consideration for an increase.’ Sources: United States Census Bureau; ABA Journal; Fusion