Young male lawyers hit a six-figure salary before they turn 25 far more often than female counterparts and that pay gap persists through the generations.
A survey of more than 12,000 lawyers in NSW, published on Friday, shows the gender pay gap exists in the legal field regardless of a solicitor's age, years of admission or sector of employment.
In the under-25 age bracket, one in nine male respondents reported an income above $100,000 compared to one in 25 women.
About one in three men lawyers hit a $250,000 income in their 40s, compared to one in four women.
Experience was not the determining factor, with the report noting men reported earning more than women admitted in the same year in all sectors of practice.
That included in the corporate and government legal sectors, where the workforce was overwhelmingly made up of women.
The gender pay gap appears to be closing, however.
Ten years ago, there was a 15 percentage point difference in the share of male and women solicitors earning more than $150,000. That narrows to nine points in the latest survey.
The result might be skewed by a large increase in men declining to state their incomes over the same period, the report noted.
The results were contained in a wider snapshot of NSW's legal sector, which now boasts 40,000 solicitors.
The Law Society of NSW said it was committed to supporting law firms to address the imbalance.
A guide to improving equitable remuneration in the legal profession will be published this year.
Law Society president Cassandra Banks said one of her priorities for 2023 was working to close the gender pay gap and recognise equitable workplace arrangements.
She said she was heartened by other results in the 2022 survey, including that the state's private practice sector - where two in three solicitors work - was gender balanced.
Ms Banks also noted a pleasing if gradual increase in the proportion of women in principal or partner roles to 35 per cent - up from 24 per cent a decade ago.
The proportion of overseas-born solicitors now matches the NSW population, at about three in 10.
But Indigenous solicitors made up only 0.9 per cent of the workforce, compared to 3.4 per cent of the NSW population.
Ms Banks said more initiatives like Legal Aid NSW's career pathway program were needed to address structural barriers for Indigenous people entering the profession.
