Pay gap widening for Australian female barristers

CANBERRA -- The gender pay gap among Australia's barristers has widened, according to the body for legal professionals.

Data released by the Law Council of Australia revealed that female barristers conducted 25 percent of court cases in Australia in financial year 2018-19 but received only 17 percent of the 510 million Australian dollars (about 346 million US dollars) paid to barristers.

Inversely, males conducted 75 percent of cases and earned 83 percent of fees.

The eight percentage point gap is up from a five percent gap in financial year 2017-18 when females conducted 20 percent of cases for 15 percent of the total fees.

"The fact is that male barristers, as a group, received about three times the number of briefs and five times the value of briefs than their female counterparts," said Arthur Moses, president of the Law Council, according to The Australian on Friday.

"This is not acceptable and as a profession we can do much better."

The widening gap has been identified in the Law Council's report on the impact of its equitable briefing policy, which encourages organisations that brief barristers to report how much of their court work is allocated to women.

The policy aims to have female barristers briefed in at least 30 percent of cases and paid at least 30 percent of all fees by 2020.