Scottish gender wage gap: women in tech expect nearly £20k less than men 

Women working in the Scottish tech industry are willing to accept an average salary that is almost £20,000 less than their male counterparts, new research has revealed.

According to data released by career and insights marketplace Haystack, Scotland has the biggest expected salary gender gap in the UK.

Looking at the minimum expected salary of 1,010 of their current users in tech, the report showed Scottish women expect an average minimum salary of £22,000 per year compared to men who expect £40,714 – a difference of £18,714.

The same issue is true for the South West, with a £14,000 difference, and the East Midlands, with a £11,900 difference in the genders’ expected salaries.

This news comes after the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) published a shocking paper which revealed women in the Scotttish workforce are 50 per cent more likely to have a low rate of effective hourly pay than men.

Mike Davies, chief operating officer and co-founder at Haystack, said: “Studies have shown that women are more likely to accept job offers faster than men, meaning they are less likely to negotiate on the offered salary. And with many job adverts not disclosing the offered salary as anything other than ‘competitive’, as long as what is on offer matches their minimum, women are more likely to take a role without question.

“This is what perpetuates the gender pay gap. If women go into an interview with a lower expected salary and have been found to accept roles faster than their male counterparts, they will always be accepting less money than men going for the same job. Whereas men, with a higher minimum expected salary and more likely to negotiate, will walk away with a higher salary.”

He added: “Tech organisations need to start thinking about how they can put their best foot forward and not shy away from publishing salaries. We’ve found that this not only increases the overall application rate but also means that more women are happy to step up and value themselves accordingly, rather than relying on misaligned information.”

The average expected salary by tech talent in Scotland is £39,013. This compares to £45,624 in London, £44,440 in South East England and £40,000 in East of England.

Conversely, techies in Northern Ireland only expect a minimum salary of £28,231.

Those in Glasgow on average expect a minimum salary of £41,067, in Edinburgh it is £38,892, and in Dundee it is just £27,000.

On average, it was found that tech professionals in the UK are underestimating their worth nearly £10,000 less than the average salary on offer for their role.

Engineering management professionals undervalue themselves the most. The average offered salary for this role is £69,300, however, Haystack’s users currently looking for or already in this role have a minimum expected salary of £44,700 – £24,800 less than they are worth.

Similarly, data scientists are undervaluing themselves by £16,000 and DevOps professionals by £15,000.

The Haystack study also analysed what skills are most likely to “bump up your average salary” in the tech industry and formulated a ‘top ten’ list – which includes Docker, GIT, Java and AWS.

It was found that, aside from React and Javascript, more men had experience with the highest paying skills in tech – potentially impacting the earning potential of women.

For Docker, 12 per cent of the men in the study listed this skill on their profiles, compared to only 4.7 per cent of women.

A big difference can also be seen between males with AWS experience (15.23 per cent) and females with this skill (6.04 per cent).