Clifford Chance and Freshfields analyse employee data, including socio-economic background
Magic Circle firms Freshfields and Clifford Chance have released their annual pay gap reports analysing data on gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
Freshfields’ 2022 mean gender pay gap is 53.2%, inclusive of partners, representing a slight increase on last year’s result of 52.1%. The gap stood at 54.5% in 2020.
Looking at just partners, the gender pay gap jumped from -2.6% in 2021 to 12.2% in 2022. The mean gender pay gap for employees is 7.6%.
Freshfields also reported an increase in its ethnicity pay gap, from 50.5% to 55.9%. The firm said 20.9% of its UK partners and employees identified as part of a minority ethnic group in 2022.
Freshfields has published its gender pay gap since 2017, and on a voluntary basis, its ethnicity pay gap since 2018.
Its disability and LGBTQ+ pay gaps came out at 8.8% and -2.8%, respectively, a marked improvement on the previous year’s results of 52.5% and 33.4%.
It has released socio-economic pay gap data for the first time by analysing the pay gap between three groups of parental occupational background: professional, intermediate and lower socio-economic. It showed a mean gap of 27.9% between intermediate and professional; 4.4% between intermediate and lower socio-economic; and 31.3% between professional and lower socio-economic.
Claire Wills, London managing partner, commented:
“We continue to focus on driving measurable change and ensure transparency as part of our diversity and inclusion commitments. I’m particularly pleased that we are including pay gap figures on socio-economic backgrounds this year, which is a key priority for the firm in our global strategy. Our UK colleagues have shown great engagement, and we have worked in partnership with clients and the broader community on multiple efforts, which we believe will help us eliminate pay gaps over the longer term.”
Over at Clifford Chance, the 2022 mean gender pay gap was 63.5%, inclusive of partners, representing a slight decrease on last year’s result of 64.9%.
The gender pay gap for partners dropped from 27.1% in 2021 to 20% in 2022. The mean gender pay gap for employees is 16.6%.
CC also reported a decrease in its ethnicity pay gap this year, from 53.6% to 45.6%. Its disability and LGBTQ+ pay gaps came out at 12.8% and 25.5%, respectively, improving on last year’s 34.4% and 31.3%.
Clifford Chance’s socio-economic pay gap data is calculated via the same system as Freshfields. It showed a mean gap of 37.4% between intermediate and professional; 13.7% between intermediate and lower socio-economic; and 46% between professional and lower socio-economic.
Allen & Overy and Linklaters published their 2022 results earlier this year. Both firms narrowed their gender pay gaps, with A&O going from 59% to 55.7%, and Links from 61.7% to 60.1%, inclusive of partners. Slaughter and May is due to release its report soon.