On International Women's Day earlier this month, we ran a post that highlighted the pay inequity among men and women.
It highlighted how in September 2018, for every dollar men earn, women earned 83 cents. Career marketplace Hired's annual study, titled “State of Wage Inequality,” validated this insight, illustrating that the wage gap among men and women is widest in Boston tech - about 9 percent, compared to New York (8 percent) and San Francisco (6 percent).
The report quoted a researcher as saying, “The usual suspects - namely experience, occupation, and location - play a minor role in explaining the pay gap," said Nina Roussille of UC Berkeley’s Opportunity Lab. "But the data points toward a bigger culprit: Expectations. Women are being offered less because they are asking for less. Once we account for a candidates’ asking salary, the wage gap essentially disappears.”
But it is not all gloom and doom. While the percentage of underrepresentation of women in tech jobs has risen all over, Boston does fare better than other cities at -15 percent compared to -31 percent in New York and -41 percent in Los Angeles. And, there's this nugget from a recruitment marketplace provider Scout Exchange study: As of last year, there's been a 41 percent spike in the number of women hired for executive roles paying more than $100,000 annually.
However, the report also found that when it comes to management positions, the situation isn't quite that dire. "Women in product management roles are actually making more money than men in the same role by 5 percent," the report said. "Additionally, the gap between men and women in starting data analytics and software engineering roles has narrowed, with men being paid 1 percent more in these positions."
The pay gap demon at startups manifests in a different manner -- According to a study released last year by Carta, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that helps startups manage employee and investor equity, female employees at startups own 47 cents for every dollar of equity a male employee owns. Although the report covered a range of industries in the country, the statistic is perhaps most relevant in the tech industry.
In Massachusetts, however, there is a formidable effort underway to change this. The state’s equal pay act went into effect in July last year. Shortly after, Mayor Marty Walsh spearheaded the Boston Women’s Workforce Council initiative, a public-private partnership between the mayor’s office and the Greater Boston business community. It's dedicated to advancing women's position in the workforce by removing visible and invisible barriers, and ultimately removing the pay gap.
And the council’s first task, led by Shereen Shermak, a startup industry veteran and angel investor, is to get more employers to sign the 100% Talent Compact - as well as getting them engaged in practical actions that advance gender equity in the workplace. The call hasn't been in vain; A number of Boston-area companies including startups like Acquia, Compt, and organizations like TiE Boston, Year Up, Mass Tech Collaborative has signed the pledge.
