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IT Gender
Wage Gaps
More American women now hold college degrees than men. We have higher
percentages of women in the sciences and technology than any other
industrialized nation. So, have women caught up in the wages department?
No, the gender wage gap has narrowed, but U.S. Census Bureau figures show
that American women still earn less than 75 percent of what men earn. The
average return in earnings for each year of higher education is greater
for men than for women.
Tech women enjoy a smaller wage gap. The IT industry offers women a
better chance at pay equity than any other industry. In a study by Gray
and Huang, the most important variable affecting earnings of both men and
women was occupation, not education levels. The study showed that the
effect of occupation choices on wages was greater for women than FOR men.
Dice job board tech salary survey shows decreasing gender wage gap.
Dice began conducting tech salary surveys in 2000. The sexual wage gap
remained constant until the 2003 survey when the gender wage gap actual
decreased, narrowing to 11%. Tech women's salaries increased 5% to an
average of $62,800 and men's increased only 2%. The most common tech
positions for women were applications developer, programmer analyst and
project manager. When analyzed by age, women over 50 demonstrated the
largest wage gap, earning an average of 13.5% less than male counterparts.
There were also large geographic differences. Silicon Valley, Boston and
New York offer the top paying tech salaries, but the closest gender pay
equity occurred in the Mountain region at 8% and the highest wage
differences occurred in the south and mid-Atlantic states at 15%.
Techies.com study finds women earn 92 percent of male peer salaries.
Although better than the average 75% of male earnings, it’s still a gender
wage gap. Salaries of more than 106,133 techies.com members were analyzed.
The study found that for the first 5 years both sexes receive almost equal
pay. But the wage gap starts increasing as men and women move up the
experience ladder. The women averaged approximately $5,000 less in annual
pay than men. High tech positions such as engineers and software
developers reported the smallest gender gaps in salary. High demand for
employees doesn’t guarantee salary equity. The data management field is
one of the hottest job markets where qualified professionals are actively
recruited, but data management scored the highest for gender pay inequity,
with women earning only 84 percent of male salaries with an average annual
difference of $12,500. Tech marketing and human resources jobs also scored
poorly: HR women earn ~ $11,300 less than male coworkers, and marketing
women earn ~ $7,900 less than the marketing men in the same or similar
positions.
Women seem to get “stuck’ on the career and salary ladder. The wage
gap between senior tech professionals may occur because women get fewer
promotions and don’t move as often into management positions. According to
InformationWeek Research, the difference in “average” IT salary increases
for men and for women is negligible. Women did get raises 1.1% greater
than those for men in staff positions, but 1.1% less than those for men in
similar management positions. Both Dice and Techies.com surveys have shown
increased wage gaps as age and experience increase.
IT Projected salaries 2000-2010 Women in Blue/ men in purple
Source: US Dept of Labor Women’s Bureau
http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/hitech02.htm
Employed US Computer Systems Analysts Women in Blue/ men
in purple
Source: US Dept of Labor Women’s Bureau
http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/hitech02.htm
IT has a persistent image as a male dominated, geek industry. There
are definitely fewer women than men in IT. Although the U.S. leads the
world in tech/ science savvy women, studies indicate women currently only
make up 20-30% of the IT industry. Women in general are less enamored of
the typical late night 7 day a week tech slave status and are under
represented in high level and management jobs.
UK government encouraging women in IT. Just last year, the UK set
up a national Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and
Technology to promote IT opportunities for women and challenge negative
stereotypes among girls about IT careers. The goal is to increase the
number of women working in all levels of IT. The UK Office of National
Statistics shows that women account for only 23 per cent of the IT
workforce. Over one third of new technology recruits are women but they
don't stay. The national resource centre is intended to complement other
programs such as the nationwide E-skills UK and Academic Computer Clubs
for Girls.
High tech is a promising field for both men and women. High tech
occupations offer women the opportunity for high pay with the smallest
gender wage gap of any industry. Women must recognize tech careers offer
us high paying opportunities in a growing industry key to the changing
global economy of the 21st century. Women can make great “IT geeks’. Even
with outsourcing, the future is bright for the information technology
projected job market whether it be computer, Internet, software or
hardware application related.
Resources
Computer Weekly
www.computerweekly.com
Computer Tech Work Job Board
www.computerwork.com
Dice Job Board salary surveys
www.dice.com
The gender gap in yearly earnings: Is it lack of education or occupational
segregation? By Gray, K. & Huang, N. Journal of Vocational Educational
Research.
Information Week: Tech Web business technology network
www.informationweek.com
Salary.com www.salary.com
Techies.com Salary Survey www.techies.com
UK Computing
www.computing.co.uk/news/1152424
University of California, Berkeley Gender Wage Gaps
http://ncrve.berkeley.edu/
US Dept of Labor Women’s Bureau
http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/hitech02.htm
Women’s Tech World
www.womentechworld.org
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