Dive Brief:
- Across 24 of the most popular job titles in technology, Asian/Pacific Islander workers rake in top salaries in 17 categories, including many senior and managerial positions, according to a Comparably analysis of more than 40,000 salary records from the last two years. This group earns salaries 7.8% higher than Caucasian peers, on average.
- Workers who identify as "other" cinched top earnings in five roles — business development manager, data scientist, DevOps engineer, principal engineer and sales engineer — compared to other ethnic groups, and Caucasians earned top salaries in sales representative and strategic account manager.
- African Americans were on average the lowest earners across 15 job roles. Hispanic/Latino workers earned lowest average salaries in four roles (lead engineer, principal engineer, project manager and sales engineer) and Caucasians in five (product manager, senior marketing manager, senior product manager, senior QA and senior UI/UX designer). Hispanic/Latino and African American workers in technology still face compensation 3.3% and 8.5% lower, respectively, than white workers, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
As diversity and inclusion become bigger priorities for technology companies, benchmarking representation and equitable pay and treatment is crucial. But regular progress reports need to measure across ethnic and gender lines.
For the most part, women across ethnic groups are paid less than their male peers. Women did outperform men in a few job categories measured by Comparably, including DevOps engineer for Hispanic/Latino and African American women and architect roles for Hispanic/Latino, African American and "other" women.
Pay gaps between men and women in the same ethnic group
| Ethnicity | Percent less women are paid than men | Jobs with pay gap above $10,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Caucasian | 9% | Architect, Engineering Manager, Lead Engineer, Sales Engineer, Sales Manager, Sales Representative, Senior Developer, Senior Marketing Manager |
| Hispanic/Latino | 6.9% | Business Development Manager, Creative Director, Engineering Manager, Lead Engineer, Mobile Developer, Sales Engineer, Senior Marketing Manager |
| African American | 7% | Data Scientist, Engineering Manager, Lead Engineer, Sales Engineer, Senior Product Manager, Senior QA |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 6.7% | Business Development Manager, Engineering Manager, Lead Engineer, Project Manager, Sales Engineer, Senior Marketing Manager |
| Other | 5.6% | Business Development Manager, Data Scientist, Sales Engineer, Senior Developer |
But pay gaps ranging between 5.6% to 9% demonstrate a lingering problem for tech companies.
Without proper salary growth, career trajectory and good management, many women will opt to leave their technology roles in pursuit of something else.
