Male lawyers earn more than their female counterparts

That's what an August report from the U.S. Census Bureau showed for 2007, according to this story in the ABA Journal online. Not a big surprise, I must say. Here's a paragraph summing up the "apples to apples" comparison:

Even when particular jobs within the legal profession were examined, women lawyers continued to lag behind their male counterparts. Women lawyers made a median of $93,600, a salary that was 77.8 percent of male lawyers’ median salary of $120,400. Female paralegal and legal assistants earned a median of $42,600, which was 93.2 percent of the $45,700 median that men earned. Female judges, magistrates and other judicial workers earned a median of $69,500, which is 64.3 percent of the median of $108,100 earned by males.

It's interesting that gap is greatest for judges, at almost 36%! The percentage of male lawyers' median pay that women lawyers earn, 77.8%, is remarkably close to the male-female income comparison across all occupations. See my earlier post here.