PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
It is no secret that there is a gender imbalance within the technology sector.
The main issue remains the disparity between the number of men and women in technology-related jobs. The difference in pay has also been highlighted time and again, with a survey earlier this year revealing that women earn up to 28 per cent less than their male counterparts in the UK for tech-related occupations.
The survey by Emolument.com found that the biggest pay gap is within small companies (less than 10 employees) with women paid 28 per cent less than men doing the same roles. In SMEs the pay gap was between 19-20 per cent highlighting the fact that this is an issue which runs throughout the industry.
But with thousands of companies coming forwards with pay gap reports, how do the big tech firms stack up in the UK?
Facebook, for starters, is among the better companies with women paid just 0.8 per cent less than their male counterparts based on mean hourly rates. Women make up 39.2 per cent of Facebook’s lowest-paid quartile, and 29.5 per cent of the top quartile. However, when it comes to bonuses, Facebook should hang its head in shame, with women getting around 40 per cent less than the social media giant’s male colleagues.
Microsoft – one of the first to release its figures – is a little behind Facebook with women earning a mean average of 93p for every £1 that men earn when hourly rates are compared.
Google is behind again with women at the company earning just 83p to their male colleagues’ pound. Meanwhile, Amazon’s UK Services has recorded income parity, however with its Video department women are paid just 60p for every £1 that mean earn. And Amazon Web Services pays women a median 82p to every £1 an hour earned by men, while their median bonus is 47 per cent lower.
Chip designer ARM pays women a median of 84p for every £1 that men earn and gives them bonuses that are around 30 per cent smaller, while female employess at IBM earn 84p for every £1 that men earn and receive bonus pay that is 33.9 per cent lower than men’s.
Following Emolument’s research, Alice Leguay, co-founder and CMO at Emolument said: “It is not intuitive that the technology sector, a trailblazing, forward-thinking industry, should be lagging in terms of gender pay gap. The financial sector has shown that regulation and co-ordinated action can make a systemic difference from graduate applications to board of directors ratios.
"Media pressure may well encourage the technology sector to mind its current discriminatory practices, though there may be blood on the walls as it happens, as with Uber. More transparency is needed when it comes to pay, and not only for companies with more than 250 employees, as currently required; not only either for the Financial sector, which is facing up to its failings.”
