The pay gap at Anthony Harper was highly favourable to women
Sixty percent of law firm signatories to the Gender Equality Charter (GEC) confirmed that they had conducted gender pay gap audits in the past two years, according to the 2025 Survey of Gender Equality Charter Signatories - Supplementary Report.
Among these, 63% of existing law firm signatories conducted audits while 29% of new signatories did so – a total of 74 organisations. All in-house signatories reported having conducted audits.
Of the firms who conducted audits, Anthony Harper’s calculated percentage pay gap was most favourable to women at -36.17% (a negative percentage being indicative of favourability to women). It was followed by MinterEllisonRuddWatts with -15.8% and Dentons Kensington Swan with -13.3%. At Norris Ward McKinnon, the pay gap was particularly favourable to women at the law clerk and junior solicitor (-19%) and associate levels (-16%).
Saunders Robinson Brown reported a 22% calculated percentage pay gap, while NZ Customs’ pay gap came in at 13.3%. Overall, 57% of the law firms that conducted gender pay gap audits reported either no gap or gaps favourable to women.
Thirty percent of the organisations that conducted pay audits used the Gender Pay Gap Toolkit released by the Ministry for Women last year. Signatories also highlighted the the public service’s pay gap action plan, Kia Toipoto, as a model to follow.
To address any pay gaps, respondents indicated that they were developing and implementing standardised, transparent compensation frameworks to limit discretionary bias, including salary bands, objective pay and promotion criteria, and establishing centralised remuneration committees. Those who did identify pay gaps either adjusted salaries immediately or checked outliers to determine whether differences could be justified; gaps were then addressed during the remuneration cycle.
Signatories compared salaries to those listed in guides like ALPMA and Hays to facilitate competitive pay. They also focused on career progression for women to limit structural pay inequality drivers.
Signatories implemented parental leave equity and return-to-work practices. They launched unconscious bias training, implemented gender neutral recruitment language, established diverse interview panels and set up diversity, equity and inclusion councils or committees supervising pay equity.
Moreover, respondents adopted accountability and culture change levers like publicly reporting gender pay gaps on their websites or on public sites like MindTheGap.
Firms that did not conduct audits generally cited the following reasons:
The 2025 Survey of Gender Equality Charter Signatories received 128 responses from law firms, in-house legal teams, barrister soles, barristerial chambers and sole practitioners. The full supplementary report has been published here.
