Slaughter and May and Ashurst have become the latest firms to file their gender pay gap figures, with Slaughters' report revealing that its female associates receive higher salaries and more bonus pay than their male counterparts.

The firm's report states that its female associates are paid on average 2.1% more than men, with average bonus pay for women 2.7% higher than male associates.

However, when looking at all non-partner employees, the firm's pay gap for all staff is 14.3% in favour of men, with a bonus gap of 33.3%.

Slaughters' figures compare favourably to magic circle rivals Linklaters and Allen & Overy, both of which have published their data in recent weeks, reporting pay gaps of 23.2% and 19.8% respectively.

Slaughters' report also includes a breakdown of business services roles, although these figures exclude secretarial positions, which at most law firms are typically held almost exclusively by women. The firm found that by removing secretaries from the business services figures, there is actually a 7.6% pay gap in favour of women and a 5% bonus gap in favour of women.

Executive partner Paul Stacey said: "Our analysis of the underlying figures shows that our one-firm culture remains strong, with the gender pay gap for associates and business services professionals yielding encouraging results. That culture values remunerating our employees in a less differentiated and more egalitarian way, and is supported by no billable hours targets."

The proportion of male and female staff who received a bonus is almost identical, at 92.2% and 91.6% respectively.

The firm's lowest-paid employees are mostly female, with 72.3% of the bottom quartile of earners made up of women.

Meanwhile, Ashurst's gender pay gap data shows that its female staff are paid 24.8% less on average while they also receive 64.4% less in average bonus pay.

In addition, 44.3% of male staff took home a bonus compared to 34.1% of women.

Looking at legal staff only, the gender pay gap stands at 16.4% in favour of men, while female lawyers also receive 62.6% less in bonus pay on average.

The latest disclosures come three weeks before the 4 April reporting deadline for all organisations employing more than 250 people. To date, about one third of the UK top 50 have published their figures.