Industry survey shows age is a much better indicator of salary than education, as both age and gender pay gaps are still present.
There are glaring pay gaps between age brackets from 27 to 35 and 36 to 39 in the tech industry, while women are still underrepresented and falling behind their male counterparts’ pay grade, according to tech conference UXDX’s Product Design & Development Industry report.
Of the almost 400 employees surveyed, 64pc of those were male. The report also found that female developers were so underrepresented, it couldn’t gather sufficient data in this field.
UXDX project manager, Catherine Madden said, “The global tech industry has no shortage of anecdotes about the under-representation of women, and the results of our survey have a lot to say about how this operates in Ireland.”
Madden also cited the pay gaps between ages, where women designers’ pay falls far behind men’s.
The report shows a staggeringly wide pay gap between men and women aged 27. When presenting a breakdown of the results, Rory Madden of UXDX said, “Anecdotally, I manage a team of 17 developers and there’s one female on our team and that’s not from lack of trying.”
The findings also showed that education made very little difference to pay increases compared to age. Despite 39pc of respondents reaching a master’s degree level, the report concluded that self-taught respondents fared no worse than those with masters’ or PhDs.
Despite the age and gender gaps, the tech industry still remains strongly secure and lucrative. The survey found that 60pc of respondents received a pay rise in the past year. The average pay increase was 7pc, but some pay increases went as high as 20pc.
The findings also showed 85pc of respondents were in permanent, full-time jobs and over 90pc were completely or relatively secure in the job they were in.
Of the 400 respondents, 61pc were Irish. Speaking at the launch of the report, Catherine Madden said, “While multinationals get the bulk of the press, there is a strong indigenous undercurrent in the Irish tech scene at the moment.”
Madden also mentioned the top three perks that employees appreciate are being able to work remotely, flexible hours and a contributory pension. They also want to feel they have a meaningful role in work.
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