Diversity Discussions: Women in their technology and change careers
We have already talked about the gender pay differences in finance and private equity, but how does technology and change shape up?
Much like finance and accountancy, the technology and change industries are dominated by men. The simple fact is, women are not entering the industry, despite more women earning STEM degrees than ever before. Having fewer women in this workforce vertical undoubtedly contributes to pay inequality, but what are the other contributing factors?
As part of our Diversity Discussions series, where we explore EDI in the workplace, we have reviewed some key salary data from core technology and change roles we recruit for to understand the gender pay gap in the industry.
Technology pay equality
Solutions Architecture
A solutions architect creates strategic solutions to a business problem. They manage most of the project lifecycle and stakeholder, from design through to implementation. In many ways, the Solution Architect builds the bridge between a business problem and the technology solution and outlines each of the phases and requirements needed to make that solution work.
Since 2021, we have seen a gradual increase in the basic salary offered in this space to permanent employees. But when factoring in the rising rate of contractor pay, salaries in this space have risen by an average of £15,000 in the past 18 months.
In terms of gender equal pay, the permanent female solution architects we placed in the past two years, earned 15% more than their male counterparts. This equates to £12,500 per annum. However, we did not place any female contractors in these roles, which means when you factor in contractors, women earn 4% less. Nevertheless, whilst contractors typically earn more than permanent employees, it comes with a considerable number of considerations you must make before taking on interim work.
Software Development
Over the years we have done a considerable amount of recruitment in this space, especially for FinTech's. We have filled a number of permanent .NET, Full Stack, and Java Developer roles over the past 24 months. Of these roles, only 25% were filled by women which is symptomatic of a wider problem in the technology recruitment market- there is not enough female representation in the space.
Furthermore, when you consider the salaries women in this space achieve compared to their male counterparts, women earn 5% less (£3,117 per annum) less than their male counterparts. When reviewing our internal data, more female developers are undertaking part-time hours than men. This undoubtedly brings down their average salary.
Data Science
Senior data scientists discover insights through data analysis to support business development and enterprise strategies. When considering the salary differences between the genders in this space, it is worth nothing that 50% of the Senior Data Scientists we recruit for are contractors – and are paid more than their permanent counterparts. With that being said, of the permanent Data Scientist placements made in the past twelve months:
- Women were paid on average £83,000
Men were paid on average £80,000
But, when you factor in contractors, who were on average paid £117,031 the male average pay goes up as we did not place any female contractors in Senior Data Scientist roles.
Change and Transformation pay equality
Change Manager
Change and Transformation Managers are responsible for delivering essential changes to organisations. They shape business strategy and deliver complex transformations of people, processes, and systems. Change and transformation is a rapidly growing sector and demand for experienced and talented professionals commands a premium, but the value they offer in return is immense.
Like many of the roles mentioned in this article, many of them are filled by contractors. When considering permanent basic pay:
- As an average, the male Change Managers we have placed in the past three years, have achieved an average salary of £73,000 per annum.
Whereas women have achieved an average of £48,300
What this analysis does not take into consideration is the sectors these people are being employed into. The female Change Managers placed during this period were placed with non-profits or regionally. Both factors which contribute to slightly lower pay.
Business Analyst
Business Analyst basic salaries can vary drastically based on region and sector. With that being said, business analysis was one of the only tech and change roles where both genders are paid on balance. The average permanently employed Business Analyst in the UK can expect to earn £61,000 while contractors are looking at £450-£500 per day.
What does this mean?
It is clear from these numbers that there is a long way to go to ensure that both genders are paid equitably for similar work. Moreover, whilst it is heartening that women are achieving more than men in certain roles, there is a gender imbalance in terms of the number of women breaking into the industry.
To combat this, our recruitment consultants have access to several tools to ensure they are providing clients with a diverse and inclusive talent pool. Namely, we utilise Gender Decoder to remove masculine biases from some of our job adverts.
Furthermore, women will not apply for a job unless they feel that they meet 100% of the required skills. Whereas men will apply for a job if they only meet 60% of the requirements. As a result, Marks Sattin work with our clients to advise them to write a job advert that limits the essential criteria to ‘must have’ skills only.
Additionally, it is clear from our data that there are significantly fewer women taking contract and interim employment opportunities. Studies have shown that this is down to several factors, ranging from:
- Job insecurity and fear of job loss
- Division of labour in the households
Career interruptions because of motherhood
The literature on this topic particularly emphasises that women bear the risks of career interruptions when children are born, which can be aggravated when working on an interim or fixed-term contracts.
Furthermore, the Insititute for Fiscal Studies has found that women are much more likely than men to give up paid work or cut hours after childbirth, even when they earn more than men. The same study found that women’s employment rates jump sharply down from about 90% to 75%, and average weekly hours of work for those still in paid work fall from around 40 to less than 30. As a result, fewer working hours limit wage progression. Meanwhile, the paths of employment, hours, wages, and earnings for men are uninterrupted by childbirth.
How we are helping support closing the gender pay gap
Organisations partner with Marks Sattin not only to tap into the ability we have built over the last 30 years but also because of our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
It is more difficult than ever to attract the best finance talent, and that challenge is only exemplified when trying to recruit diverse talent. This is where we step in. As specialists in technology recruitment, we have grown an extensive network of clients who trust us to help them build a diverse team.
If you are looking to hire your next CTO, business analyst, head of information security, change manager, then submit a brief and we will be in touch for a chat.
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