Dive Brief:
- In a recent Comparably survey of 1,800 tech workers between 18 and 25 years of age, mobile developer, data scientist, product manager and developer were the most popular jobs for Gen Z, raking in salaries between about $94,000 and $97,000 a year.
- DevOps engineers and UI/UX designers followed at around $87,400 and $80,300, respectively. Less tech-heavy roles, such as sales and customer service representatives and marketing associates, were less popular and garnered salaries about half the size of the top jobs.
- On the job, Gen Zers are speaking out about what they don't like, according to the survey. Their age group has the highest rates of reporting sexual harassment, verbal abuse and racism at work. Gen Zers demonstrate more loyalty and social ties to their coworkers compared to older generations and are more comfortable passing negative feedback up the chain.
Dive Insight:
The youngest generation in the workforce has begun shifting the retail landscape and, as more come of age and enter the mainstream workforce, they are bound to shift the workflow and workspace.
Gen Zers have a strong attraction to tech careers with job security, as well as fair and inclusive workplaces. Another survey of the generation found iOS developer, computer vision engineer, machine learning engineer and audio engineer as four of the top five preferred jobs in tech.
As IT jobs continue to outpace growth in other industries, younger generations' proclivity for technical careers is promising as the skills gap looms large. Businesses might need to reevaluate hiring strategies and employee benefits to attract these workers, and once they enter the office work to improve communication lines between generations.
While Gen Zers are more focused on calling out and fixing inequality in the workplace, they too are grappling with unevenly distributed compensation between ethnicities.
Hispanic and Latino and African American workers generally reported lower compensation than their peers, according to the Comparably study.
Asian and Pacific Islander tech workers had the highest compensation in every category except market associates, which the "other" category topped out, and account managers and business analysts, which Caucasian workers led in.
In a turn from expectations, African American data scientists, DevOps engineers and operations managers reported salaries nearly $5,000 to $6,000 above Caucasian peers — though still well below Asian/Pacific Islander workers, according to the comparably study.
Mobile developers had a particularly wide range of salaries between ethnicities, with African Americans earning almost $75,000, Caucasians earning almost $95,000, Hispanic/Latinos and others earning around $98,000 and Asian/Pacific Islanders earning almost $106,000.
The pay gap between genders is also enduring, with a lack of representation at the leadership level for women and minorities compounding the issue.
Younger IT workers, including millennials, are likely to report feeling underpaid, a challenge for employees fighting high turnover rates. Workers with in-demand skills, such as blockchain or artificial intelligence engineering, are navigating frequent poaching efforts from competitors.
