Today’s young female lawyers are better paid than their male counterparts, reports today’s Financieele Dagblad. According to salary comparisons commissioned by the paper, female lawyers under the age of 30 earn €15.16 per hour while men pocket €14.63.

Some 63% of law students are now female. The paper says the difference is probably because women tend to graduate more quickly than men and score higher marks.
This means they are more likely to get a job at a younger age and with a bigger law firm. ‘A female lawyer aged 29 has already built up seven years of work experience and is higher up the pay scale,’ professor Kea Tijdens of Erasmus University told the paper.
‘Men often want to go and travel for a year after graduating,’ Mirjam de Blécourt, a partner with Baker and McKenzie, said. ‘Women are less likely to do that and, if they do, they would rather go to Harvard Law School for a year.’