It's Good To Have Balls*

A preliminary report of lawyers two to three years into their careers has yielded one striking finding so far: Women in the study are earning an average of $66,000, while men are earning $80,000.

The difference is explained in part by the tendency of women to go into lower-paying fields, such as government and public interest work. And there's some good news: In the 101- to 250-lawyer firms, women slightly outearn men.

The author of the article offers up some of her own theories to explain the earnings gap.

1. Women aren't as likely to negotiate for higher salaries.
2. Women don't tout their accomplishments as much as men do.
3. Men get ahead by drinking with power brokers.
4. Women are thinking ahead about work/life balance.

Or maybe - as I now channel my inner Larry Summers - women are merely not as good at this law thing as we men are. I kid of course, but feel free to send me hate mail at WSoller at Gmail dot com anyway.

*Especially if they're magnified 10x their size.