Female and minority in-house attorneys in Canada are paid 11% less than their male and white counterparts, according to a new survey released by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association and the recruitment firm The Counsel Network.

That statistic has not changed since the last time the survey was conducted in 2018. The findings also showed that minority lawyers, a group that Canadians refer to as "racialized lawyers," earn a mean salary of $12,000 below non-minorities. And lawyers with disabilities earn $18,500 less than their peers on average.

"I think it represents exactly what we hear and see what's going on," says Dal Bhathal, managing partner at The Counsel Network. "It gives a lot of validity to what people are saying and what they're experiencing."

Vivene Salmon, vice president of compliance at Bank of America Merril Lynch and the first president of color of the Canadian Bar Association, said the survey's findings come as no surprise. But she said she wished for faster change.

"It's hard not to feel angry that women, racialized groups and disabled lawyers are not compensated the same as white men in the legal profession for equal work."

Daniel Bourque, president of the Canadian Association of Corporate Counsel and associate general counsel of KPMG Canada, noted that publicizing the data and the fact that it has not changed over several years brings visibility to the issues and the work that needs to be done.

The survey was conducted in the period right before the pandemic, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 28, and included 1,141 respondents. There are an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 corporate counsel across Canada, according to Bourque.

The findings show that the average in-house base salary for a man is $177,000—$19,000 more than the average base in-house salary for a woman, which is $158,000. This is the same gap reported last time the survey was conducted in 2018. At higher wage levels, the results are worse, with 30% of males earning a mean salary of more than $200,000 and only 19% of females earning that amount.

The gap in pay can partially be attributed to the fact that the lowest-paying sectors—government, crown corporations and not-for-profits—employ the highest proportion of women, according to the report.

"What we don't know is whether those sectors pay more because the majority of the lawyers are male," says Salmon. "Do women have difficulty getting jobs in the higher-paying sectors? We don't have the answer to that question, but surveys like this give us a baseline, and point to where we need to ask tough questions."

Lawyers with disabilities (who only encompassed 5% of the survey-takers) are also subject to lower pay based on the field in which they're working, with mean salaries $18,500 lower than their peers, and higher representation in government and the financial services sector. This is the first year the survey results reported on compensation for lawyers with disabilities.

Most of the minority lawyers included in the survey were in more junior positions compared to white lawyers, according to Bhathal. They were also less represented at the two highest job titles: executive vice president legal (1% compared to 3%) and vice president legal (4% versus 8% of their peers).

"What we need to do is keep reporting on this and then see how those racialized lawyers are progressing—are they making it into the senior ranks? Is their compensation increasing? Because that will then have an impact," Bhathal said.

Salmon noted that the burden of change cannot be put only on those seeking equity within the legal profession.

"From a practical perspective, we gave to work at building leadership skills in members of equity-seeking groups so that they know how to command the respect and compensation they deserve for their work," she said. "Institutions and legal leaders, in particular, have the moral voice and authority to drive change."