We know there are more men than women in tech careers, and we know there’s a wage gap. But a recent report conducted by Comparably found something interesting — as professionals age, the gender gap decreases.
While there is a 29 percent difference in salaries between men and women entering the tech field between the ages of 18 and 25, by the time professionals are over 50 years old, men earn just 5 percent more than women.
This makes sense considering that a survey conducted by my company, HealthITJobs.com, found that, in health IT, salaries significantly increase with more experience. But that doesn’t explain why there’s such a large gap to begin with.
The problem starts when professionals enter the field, and that means factors as early in the process as job posts can influence this trend. That’s right — job posts can launch and perpetuate the wage gap in tech. Here’s how.
There’s a long tradition in which employers ask candidates in job posts and applications for salary requirements or for their salary history. The practice is so common, most professionals don’t give the question a second thought. But asking for salary history in a job post can actually perpetuate the wage gap.
That’s why Massachusetts signed a new equal pay act into law that prohibits employers from asking job candidates about salary history in application materials and the interview. The reasoning behind the act is that when compensation is based on past numbers, it only perpetuates past disparities, especially because women typically earn less than men in their first job.
