Women top lawyers now out-earn men by 16% at America’s biggest companies—even as their share of the job slips

Women working full time in the U.S. still earn substantially less than men. In the second quarter of 2026, women’s median weekly earnings were $1,131, or 82% of men’s $1,380 median, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But in one of corporate America’s most powerful executive jobs, the gap has flipped, and it’s widening.

Women serving as general counsel at the largest publicly traded U.S. companies were paid about 16% more than their male counterparts in 2025. The figure comes from Equilar’s annual General Counsel Pay Trends report, produced with legal executive search firm BarkerGilmore. That premium nearly doubled from 8.5% a year earlier, Bloomberg first reported.

The analysis covers the Equilar 500, a group of the largest U.S. public companies by revenue. It draws on annual regulatory disclosures for so-called named executive officers, typically the CEO, the CFO, and the three highest-paid executives beyond those roles.

Female general counsel received a median base salary of $672,000 and roughly $2.3 million in stock awards. Men received a median salary of $657,000 and $1.9 million in equity.

Stock awards did most of the........

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