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Women have been a key focus recently in the realm of IT recruiting. Too many tech companies have gotten a bad reputation for hiring only a limited demographic, but things are starting to change. More women are getting the same technical education and earning the same degree of experience in the field, and as such we are seeing a marked uptick in female employees. However, the discussion around a gender pay gap is still a hot topic.

Two out of every five women in the technical field say that equal pay for men and women is a top concern of theirs, but the data shows the pay gap itself is relatively narrow for jobs of equal education and years of experience. Why then do so many women still feel they are not valued at an equal pay rate as their male counterparts? Here is a little more insight into the situation.

Comparable Salaries

Less than one year ago, PayScale released a report detailing a massive compensation study that surveyed over 1.4 million employees over a period of two years. This report confirmed that on average, across multiple market sectors and employment types, taking into account multiple different variables such as marital and family status, seniority, geography, and education, women working full-time jobs made less than men across the board. While the report showed that the pay gap wasn’t quite as high as what we have come to expect (only 2.7 percent), a troubling finding was they are making less in every industry, across every level of education, and at every job level.

Incomparable Opportunities

That said, a 2.7 percent gap is pretty narrow in terms of comparable salaries, and in the technology field the pay gap may be even more negligible. The concern is women are not holding the same positions and roles within IT, which accounts for the noted difference in pay. The “position gap” is one which is created when women are not presented with the same opportunities for advancement or are less likely to hold jobs of higher compensation and responsibility than a man of the same education and background. There are simply less women in leadership roles, and this leads in part to the disparity in pay.

The career trajectory of women in technology is unavoidably influenced by the biases and perspectives of peers and supervisors. It is undoubtedly still difficult for a woman to get ahead in a man’s world. But as more women take on greater roles within the field of technology, and more experienced and senior women ascend to positions of greater leadership, they are paving the way for a paradigm shift that embraces women in power. So if you are a woman entering the field of technology and you have reservations about how successful you may be within a traditionally male-dominated market, don’t let the threat of a pay gap or position gap throw you off. Each and every step that we take toward equal pay and equal opportunities gets us that much closer to the finish line.

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