News & Insights

At Macpherson Kelley we recognise diversity brings about better outcomes for our clients, the firm and each other. Creating a genuine sense of belonging and inclusiveness is core to our firm values and employee experience. Gender is a pillar of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commitment and closing the gender pay gap is an ongoing strategic priority for Macpherson Kelley, led by the Board and Executive.

In 2023, we commissioned Mercer to provide independent reporting as part of our commitment to transparency in gender pay.  We believe it is important to hold ourselves accountable to rigorous independent, expert analysis of our performance in this area. While this analysis demonstrates we have made significant inroads in this area, it also shows we have more work to do.

One of the most significant findings by Mercer is the increasing proportion of female lawyers progressing through the pipeline of seniority at the firm. This is a clear demonstration of the efficacy of our strategies, including our talent programs, flexibility initiatives, and success in recruitment policies. In support of this, half of our Managing Principal Lawyers and half of our service line heads are female. We have implemented comprehensive strategies to ensure we deliver continuous improvement and deliver measurable change.

While there is much work to be done, we are proud of our progress. Over the past two years we’ve embedded changes to our parental leave policy to make parental leave more accessible for both men and women and provide for superannuation on unpaid parental leave. We are committed to achieving equal gender representation at Principal Lawyer level and pay equity linked to performance.

Where pay gaps exist, they primarily reflect the make-up of our workforce.  Typical of most law firms, we have a high proportion of administrative and support roles compared to other industries and the majority of these roles are filled by women. Progress in changing the diversity of these positions will be slow, this is a reality of our industry.

What does the data say?

As a firm, we take our obligations concerning gender pay equity seriously.

It is difficult to make a like-for-like comparison with Macpherson Kelley and other law firms, given our company structure and inclusion of our Principal Lawyers in reporting as compared to other law firms where we expect that partners (fixed draw and equity) are excluded from the WGEA analysis therefore skewing the overall data set.

Macpherson Kelley’s pay gap is primarily driven by two things:

1. higher representation of males in higher paid jobs (Principal Lawyers); and
2. higher representation of females in support/service roles. Over 40% of our staff group are women employed in non-legal positions.

The median shows the difference between the middle earning male and the middle earning female when earnings are ranked in numerical order. Conversely ‘average’ earnings for males and the ‘average’ earnings for females and will be more influenced by outlying salaries (eg. very high or very low earners).

• We appreciate pay gap reporting is distinct from equal pay. We regard equal pay as an important measure for our context at this time. We have robust procedures in place to ensure we pay our people fairly for equivalent roles and performance. We are proud of our equal pay results that show this is well managed across all roles at Macpherson Kelley. We strive for pay equity where any variance is explainable by measurable performance indicators.
• Planned employee movements – specifically the increase of women in the law and within MK has grown and is expected for further increase in legal positions (including senior legal positions) over the next 5-10 years. Through programs such as MK Future Female Leaders program we will actively support our women to make up a larger and larger proportion of senior legal roles and therefore contribute to reducing the overall pay gap for Macpherson Kelley.

The information contained in this article is general in nature and cannot be relied on as legal advice nor does it create an engagement. Please contact one of our lawyers listed above for advice about your specific situation.