There was a lot of self-congratulation going around when the new SmartAsset report on best cities for women in tech came out in May. The District was (for the second year running) the far-and-away winner.
The report looked at 58 of the largest American cities and narrowed that number down to a top 15 based on the percentage of women in the tech work force, the gender pay gap in tech, income after housing costs and three-year tech employment growth. D.C., apparently, does really well by these metrics. As the report proudly declared — “women in the District hold over 40% of tech jobs and earn roughly the same average income as men.”
But a new study from Comparably, based on a survey of over 10,000 employees in tech from all over the country, puts D.C.’s tech gender pay gap in a less favorable light.
According to Comparably, the District’s tech gender pay gap is the third largest of the cities included in the study — women in tech in D.C. earn a median salary plus bonus that’s 51 percent less than their male counterparts. Only Minneapolis (52 percent) and Atlanta (72 percent) have larger gender pay gaps. FWIW, the city with the smallest gender pay gap in the Comparably study is Salt Lake City, with just 10 percent difference between median salaries for men and women.
Why the very disparate ratings of the city’s tech gender pay gap? Without really digging into the methodology of both the Comparably survey and that of SmartAsset it’s hard to know. But it’s a good reminder that statistics are malleable.
Also, if Comparably’s numbers are, in fact, the correct ones — does that necessarily mean that D.C. is a bad place to be a woman in tech? From a financial point of view, maybe, but certainly (along the lines of the SmartAsset research) there are other factors to be considered.
All we know is that #DCTech boasts some pretty awesome women-focused groups events and leaders — like DCFemTech’s annual awards, this list of coding classes/meetups for women and this female dev who is looking to surface all those positive stories about being a woman in tech.
Comparably’s tech gender pay gap by city graphic. (Courtesy graphic)
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