Tech workers are now earning an average of $135,000 but black tech workers are getting 'shortchanged'
- Tech salaries are on the rise, up 5% to $135,000, according to research from job hunting site Hired.
- Yet for all the talk about increasing diversity in the tech industry, the data shows that race has an impact on pay, with black tech workers getting paid the least among their peers.
- A simple negotiation trick could be the answer.
Tech workers' salaries are on the rise, according to new research from job hunting site Hired.
The average worldwide salary for a tech worker in 2017 was $135,000, says Hired, up 5% from the 2016 survey.
Hired sifted through its database of 420,000 interview requests among 10,000 participating companies and 69,000 job seekers to find such insights as part of its 2018 State of Salaries report.
But the data also showed that a person's race has what Hired called "a significant impact" on salary in the tech industry. And black tech workers are the ones getting the most shortchanged - Hired found that black tech workers are making $6,000 a year less than their white peers, on average.
Interestingly, the data suggests both a cause and a solution. Black candidates and Hispanic candidates tend to begin their salary negotiations at a lower point than their white counterparts, according to this data.
White candidates tend to ask for the highest salary, $130,000, and get offered $136,000 (+4.6% on their request).
Meanwhile, black and Hispanic candidates using Hired's platform say their preferred salary is $124,000, on average. But even when an offer beats their initial request, it's still relative to the lower number. Black workers are being offered $130,000 (+4.8%) on average and Hispanic candidates are offered $131,000 (+5.7%). Asian candidates ask for $127,000 on average and are offered $133,000 (+4.7%).
The tech industry has been promising to do more to improve its diversity, but it's been slow going. For instance, Facebook says it 3% of its workforce is black and Google says 2% is black. Under normal circumstances, a talent shortage tends to lead to higher salaries, raising questions of what makes this situation different.
Hired suggests that the short-term solution may be fairly simple: black candidates need to ask for a few thousand dollars more at the start of negotiations, rather than base their salary expectations on what they earned at a previous job.
Here's the breakdown:
