Despite pay equity progress, European tech companies still have a gender pay gap

In European tech, the “unadjusted” gender pay gap is 25%. This is the figure generally reported in major headlines, representing the median earnings across all job functions, levels, and countries. It is designed to be a straightforward comparison of all men and women, without reflecting any differences in roles or other factors.

In comparison, the “adjusted” gender pay gap is 2.5% – meaning that the average man earns 2.5% more than the average woman for doing the same role, in the same country.

While this may seem like good news on the surface, it underscores a representation issue in the tech industry, highlighting that there are more women in lower paid, junior roles than in more higher-paid, senior roles.

Women are underrepresented in European tech, especially at the senior levels

The discrepancy between the industry’s unadjusted and adjusted gender pay gap highlights the crux of the pay equity problem: a lack of female representation, particularly in senior positions.

Ravio has found that female representation is below 50% across the majority of job levels, and that only 21% of C-suite positions are held by women. After diving deeper into why, Ravio discovered that male tech executives stay in their role 46% longer than female executives.

Where there is a gender pay gap, it’s introduced at the point of hire

What can tech companies do to improve pay equity in their organisation? Ravio’s data shows there is a consistent problem with women being offered lower compensation than men at the point of hire, which is evident across multiple roles and points of entry.

This can be seen across roles, especially in Engineering. According to Ravio data, a male software engineering professional receives a new hire salary 3.3% higher than their female equivalent. Further, women receive similar rates of promotions and pay increases to men indicating that, once in an organisation, men and women are valued equally.

Europe has a mixed leaderboard when it comes to pay equity

European countries vary significantly when it comes to pay equity. For some, there is a clear representation issue that is driving the discrepancy between the “unadjusted” pay gap and the “adjusted” pay gap. For others, there is a genuine pay equity issue, meaning that women are genuinely paid significantly lower than men for doing the same role.

This can be in part due to legislation. The UK for example has one of the worst unadjusted pay gaps at 31%, but one of the best adjusted pay gaps at 1.4%. With the highest proportion of women in senior positions (26%) compared to other countries, coupled with strong legislation, the UK is leading the way when it comes to pay equity.