If you’d like to help eliminate the gender pay gap, join us on Tuesday, April 10 – online or in person – for Equal Power Day at PayScale HQ.
By this point, unless you’ve buried your head in the sand – or you’re suffering from a serious case of denial – you’re aware of the gender pay gap, i.e. the fact that women are paid, on average, 77.9 cents for every dollar earned by men. As explained in our 2018 report on the Gender Pay Gap, “In other words, the median salary for women is roughly 22 percent lower than the median salary for men.” (This number was calculated using PayScale’s proprietary data, and the size of the gap can vary slightly depending on the data set used. That said, regardless of the data set used, there is a gender pay gap.)
“Yeah, but that’s because women don’t do the same jobs,” you say.
Well, even if compensable factors are taken into account – factors like job, experience level, industry type or job level – women still make less than equally-qualified men on average, 97.8 cents for every dollar. (This explains the difference between the uncontrolled gender pay gap and the controlled gender pay gap, which we detail in our new report.)
The Gender Pay Gap in the Tech Industry
Sadly, according to new data from a study undertaken by tech job platform Hired, the gender pay gap not only exists within the tech industry, it gets worse over the course of a career as women gain experience.
“Within the first two years of working in a tech job, women in the U.S. ask for and receive 98 percent of what their male counterparts make in the same job at the same company,” reports recode, citing the report. “Over time, that disparity grows.”
“On average, women with seven to 10 years of experience, for example, ask for about 90 cents on the dollar and are offered slightly more — 93 cents for every dollar a man is offered. Women with 13 to 14 years of experience ask for 94 cents for every dollar and receive just 92 cents.”
Uhhh…what? The longer women are on the job, the less they make when compared to their comparable male colleagues?
So women should ask for a raise, right? Problem solved!
Not quite. Over time, if women are asking for or receiving a raise based on a percentage of their salary, the problem is exacerbated; assuming the standard three percent annual raise… three percent of 90-something cents on the dollar isn’t going to eventually equal pay equity; it’ll just mean that, again, the problem gets worse over time.
The Gender Pay Gap Is Worse For Women of Color
Additionally, as reported by recode:
“Overall, the study found that, in the U.S., men are offered higher salaries than women for the same position 63 percent of the time. It also found that companies offer women 4 percent less than men for the same role, on average.”
The report also found that the inequity is worse for black and Latina women, who make 90 cents for every dollar a white man makes.
This is a problem. Equal work should result in equal pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or a combination of the two. But more often than not, it doesn’t.
To learn more about the Gender Pay Gap, read our report, The State of the Gender Pay Gap 2018.
And if you’d like to help fix the problem, join us on Tuesday, April 10 – online or in person – for Equal Power Day at PayScale HQ.
We’d love for you to join us.
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