Cultural Issues

People of color, women, and other under-represented groups in computing

Women constitute 24.4% of the computer science workforce and get paid a median 66% when compared to men. Legislation in the United Kingdom for companies to publicly report these gender pay-gap figures has reinforced this statistic for many companies. For example, the U.K. branches of Civica, Huawei, and Siemens paid women around 40% less than men in 2018 to 2019.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that for the same roles and experience women are being paid less than men, although this does happen and is shameful. Typically, what this means is that while males still dramatically outnumber non-white males at the most senior and well-paid positions. Note that if a company recruited tens of female graduates the following year as a response to the gender pay gap issue, then the gap would likely widen, as those new recruits would be at the lower end of the pay band. This can be represented diagrammatically.