A new report released by Hired, a job search engine, highlights the growing trend of the gender pay disparity among tech workers. Now in its third year, The State of Wage Inequality in the Workplace looks at the gender wage gap across geographies, industries, and roles. It also examines how factors such as negotiation, race, and LGBTQ+ status impact compensation.
The State of Wage Inequality in the Workplace features data from job candidates who set a preferred salary, as well as companies that have disclosed compensation information on the Hired platform. Hired also surveyed more than 1,200 Hired candidates about their personal experience with pay inequality and asked for their perspectives on how the problem could be solved.
The Hired report aims to empower candidates to ask for what they’re worth and prompt companies to evaluate and adjust their own compensation philosophies. With this report, Hired hopes it will fuel the conversation about pay equality so that everyone can be a part of the solution.
Key findings of this report include:
- Sixty-three percent of the time, men are offered higher salaries than women for the same role at the same company.
- On average, these companies offer women 4% less than men for the same role, with some offering women up to 45% less.
- Sixty-six percent of the time, women are asking for less money—6% less on average—than men for the same role at the same company.
- More than half (54%) of women reported they had found out they were paid less than a peer of another gender in their same role—compared with 19% of men who reported the same experience throughout their careers.
- Sixty-six percent of candidates report learning about pay disparity through conversations with colleagues, while 7% report learning about it through their HR professional.
- Seventy-five percent of candidates indicated their interest in working for an organization would be impacted if a company received negative attention for having a gender wage gap.
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) men in the Hired marketplace are paid an average of $0.97 for every dollar non-LGBTQ+ men are paid, while LGBTQ+ women are getting offered slightly more (1%) than non-LGBTQ+ women.
In an effort to address the gender wage gap, California passed a law in late 2017 that no longer allows employers to ask job applicants about their prior salary. In addition, California employers must give applicants a pay range for the job they are seeking, if requested. The law went into effect on January 1, 2018, and it will be interesting to see whether this new law will have an impact on the wage disparity.
Similar measures were passed in Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Puerto Rico. The Massachusetts law will go into effect July 1, 2018, while the other locations’ laws went into effect immediately.