While general counsel in the U.S. have substantially larger paychecks than their counterparts elsewhere in the world, gender pay gaps persist within corporate legal departments and the disparities are especially bad at the largest companies, according to a new report. 

A global in-house counsel compensation survey that Major, Lindsey & Africa released on Tuesday shows that U.S.-based GCs and chief legal officers earn about $503,000 in average annual total cash compensation, compared with about $348,000 for GCs outside the U.S. 

The report notes that the compensation difference is likely due, at least in part, to the fact that in-house leaders in the U.S. have broader roles and responsibilities than their counterparts in other jurisdictions. 

The survey represents MLA's most comprehensive global study of in-house pay to date and is based on responses from 3,900 in-house lawyer participants in 36 countries. The data was collected in the fall of 2019, during precoronavirus pandemic times. 

"That's one of the more meaningful things about this," said Melba Hughes, an Atlanta-based partner in MLA's in-house counsel recruiting group who co-authored the study. "When we go back and take a look at this a year from now we will be able to see data that tells us the impact of the coronavirus." 

The report also highlights what appears to be a major issue at some of the largest corporations in the U.S. As a company's revenue increases, so do the pay disparities in its legal department, according to the survey. 

For companies with less than $1 million in annual revenue, women GCs actually out-earned men by $388,200 to $348,889.

But the pay balance changes as a company's revenue increases. 

For companies with $1 million to $10 million in revenue, the pay gap is about $14,000 in favor of male GCs. The gap increases to more than $28,000 for companies with revenues between $10 million and $100 million. At the $100 million to $1 billion revenue level, the gap grows to more than $33,000. The gap widens again to more than $98,000 at companies with $1 billion to $10 billion in revenue. 

At the largest companies with more than $10 billion in revenue, the gender pay disparity leaps. While male GCs at these businesses average $1,112,989 in total cash compensation, their female counterparts average $739,436. That's a pay difference of more than 40%.

The finding surprised Hughes, the MLA partner. She noted that the discrepancies appear to be connected to bonuses more than base salaries. 

"Oftentimes companies will have a range of bonuses. I think there's a lot of discretion in a bonus award. My guess is there are some biases being entered into that analysis for the bonus portion of compensation," she said. 

Other findings include:

• Nearly two-thirds of the 1,419 CLO and GC respondents who answered the gender pay question in the survey were male. 
• While pay disparities are pronounced at top in-house positions, U.S.-based females in midlevel positions, such as regional general counsel and associate or deputy general counsel, reported higher total actual cash compensation than their male counterparts.  
• Asia-Pacific is bucking the GC pay gap trend. The region's female GCs reported average total actual cash compensation of $437,429, while male GCs reported earning $385,884 on average. The report notes that in Asia "many households have helpers who look after children so women can return to work sooner than they do in other countries."