Women and people of color are still getting paid less in tech, report finds
Hired's annual wage gap report shows persistent problems with wage inequality in the industry.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
Not everyone gets paid equally, a study finds.
The wage gap along race and gender lines remains stubborn, according to a report out Wednesday from recruiting platform Hired.
Hired, which has been releasing annual wage inequality reports since 2017, found that men were offered higher salaries than women for the same job at the same company 59% of the time. That's down 6 percentage points from 2019 but not too far off from Hired's first report, which pegged the number at around 63%.
And while Black, Hispanic and Asian candidates all saw some improvement in their wage gaps too, Black candidates, for example, were offered 3.9% less than baseline pay.
"Companies that won't take meaningful steps towards lessening their wage gap risk losing out on top talent who demand forward-thinking and inclusive leaders," Hired CEO Josh Brenner said in the report.
Hired collected the data from more than 226,000 interview requests and job offers facilitated through its platform, as well as from 10,000 companies and 245,000 job seekers.
The report comes as inequality and discrimination continue to persist in the tech industry. Companies have struggled to create diverse talent pools, keep the talent they have and promote that talent up the ranks.
Other factors, such as location and job role, might also play a role in pay gaps. The gender pay gap in London stands at 10%, actually higher than San Francisco, which has a gap of 5%. And women software engineers are offered salaries on average 4.1% lower than their male counterparts. Women in product management roles make on average 1% more.
The report also found that women and people of color are more likely to believe there's a wage gap than men are. Along those lines, 36% of men reported experiencing discrimination, versus 57% of women, and when white employees realize they're experiencing a pay discrepancy, they're more likely to get increased compensation (28% percent of the time) than employees who are Black (20%) or Hispanic (15%).
"In 2021, employers must take action," Brenner said. "Tech employees today expect to be compensated based on their merit without being disadvantaged by their gender or race."