A new study by New York-based financial technology company SmartAsset found that San Antonio ranks in the bottom 10 United States cities for women in the tech industry, with deficits mainly in the gender wage gap and overall wages.
SmartAsset's "Best Cities for Women in Tech — 2022 Edition" compared 59 cities in the U.S., ranking them across four metrics: the industry's gender pay gap, income after housing costs, percentage of women in the tech workforce and three-year growth in the industry.
San Antonio was ranked No. 53, with the study indicating the Alamo City is lagging behind the national average in terms of both wages and gender wage gap.
The data shows that the median earnings for women in San Antonio's tech industry is 76.05% those of men, compared to a national industry average of 83.56%. It also falls behind three other major Texas cities: Houston (98.27%), Austin (83.56%) and Dallas (80.53%).
And the wage gap is wider in the local tech scene than in other industries. In San Antonio, the median income of women — for all types of workers — is 81.6% that of men, and 90% for full-time, year-round workers, according to the most recent report on the Status of Women in San Antonio by the city, which tracked data from 2005 through 2017. Statewide, the median income for women across all industries is 87% of the median income of male counterparts, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On average, women in San Antonio's tech scene also make less overall than women in other tech cities — $43,602 after housing costs compared to $58,845 annually, more than a 25% discrepancy. Even when adjusting for other factors, the gap remains stark: Bureau of Labor Statistics show San Antonio's wages overall are 11% lower than the national average, and the Council for Community and Economic Research, which specializes in national workforce research, found that San Antonio's cost of living is about 11% less than nationally.
When it comes to women as a percentage of the workforce, San Antonio is ahead of the curve, the SmartAsset report notes. In the Alamo City, women workers account for 26.84% of the tech industry, compared to 26.14% nationally.
Nationally, the representation of women in the workforce has remained stable but not increased, the SmartAsset report found.
