Dive Brief:
- Women receive lower salary offers than men for the same job at the same company 63% of the time, according to a new report from job site Hired. That figure improved only slightly from 69% in Hired’s 2016 report.
- On average, women are offered 4% less than male applicants for the same role, with some companies offering women up to 50% less.
- Using data from 120,000 interview requests and job offers in the past year, Hired also found more than half of companies interviewed only male candidates for a given role.
Dive Insight:
Many tech companies have made it a public goal to attract more women and minorities to their ranks. But unequal pay and fewer opportunities go a long way toward explaining why that goal is difficult to achieve.
Hired attributes the pay gap to "unconscious bias during the interview process" and compensation policies that look at what a candidate was previously making, rather than the market rate for the job.
But Hired found what women in tech and other industries also say; female job seekers often undervalue their skill set. Closing the gap is a two-pronged process. Companies need to train hiring managers to overcome bias and women need to make sure they understand what they are worth and to ask for a salary that falls in line with their skills and experience.
Women inside the tech fields are working to create a more inclusive environment. In cybersecurity in particular, female tech leaders are working to provide mentorship, create a strong tech talent pipeline as well as serving as public role models.
