May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Male lawyers make 19,000 pounds ($38,000) a year more than females on average and white solicitors earn 10,000 pounds more than minorities, the Law Society of England and Wales said today.

The median annual pay for men in private practice was 60,000 pounds, 32 percent more than the 41,000-pound median for women. When hours, experience, and geographic differences were considered women made 7.6 percent less, according to the Society, which represents more than 100,000 solicitors.

``The gap is a symptom of the difficulties we in the legal sector are facing,'' Fiona Woolf, head of the Society and an energy lawyer, said in a statement.

Minority groups, including black solicitors and other non- white lawyers, were also at the lower end of the pay scale, earning about 17 percent a year less than their white counterparts, according to the most comprehensive U.K. survey ever undertaken by the Society.

``The whole profession should be concerned to bridge the wide gap,'' Sailesh Mehta, chairman of the Society of Asian Lawyers, said.

The Association of Women Solicitors, with about 18,000 members, said that while women hold about 43 percent of practicing certificates, they hit a so-called glass ceiling when it comes to moving up to partner level.

``Only 21.8 percent of women solicitors are partners,'' Fiona Fitzgerald, the AWS chairwoman, said.

The society interviewed 1,579 lawyers for the survey and 832 responded to questions on salary. Fifty-seven percent of lawyers were male and 9 percent described themselves as black or minority.

To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Byrne in London at cbyrne12@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 22, 2008 09:26 EDT