Gender pay gap still at 10-17% in tech industry: Report

Bengaluru: The technology sector today has 20.5 lakh on board. But this has made little difference to their stature in the industry as they continue to suffer the discrimination of 10-17 per cent pay gap.

A report by the staffing firm TeamLease Digital, released on Tuesday, further pointed to sustained structural inequalities, disparities in role distribution and barriers in career advancement. The situation is worse when it comes to technical and leadership roles, when it comes to segments such as data analysis, where the disparity goes up to 22-30 per cent.

“We need more intervention to bridge this gap from the employer’s end. There’s already a meagre participation of 30-35 per cent from women at the entry level in the tech workforce and this pay disparity might only reduce participation. If we keep saying that we don't want women because of these reasons, we are actually curtailing 50 per cent of our database of supply,” said Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital.

Ironically, despite this scenario, senior women professionals have shown more initiative in upskilling themselve, than their male counterparts, the report observed.

More GCCs

The report also sees India adding 800 global capability centres (GCCs) in the next 5-6 years, which will offer up to 20 per cent higher salaries than IT services. The sector employs over 2 million people. While for positions like cloud solutions the salaries are at par with the IT services, for roles of data management, salaries are competitive with GCCs, the report stated.

“The demand in GCCs for tech talent, especially in the non-tech sector is increasing. They are willing to pay a marginal increase in terms of salaries if the candidate comes with functional skill sets and domain understanding, to attract them here instead of the IT sector,” added Sharma.

Fueled by novel demands of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, owing to threats in the cyber space and data protection, emerging technologies such as 5G have set forth a demand for new skills and job roles pertaining to data, cloud and cybersecurity. While IT companies see a slowdown in hiring, GCC's and the non-tech sector hiring is actually continuing to grow.

The report also talks about the growing trend of establishing GCCs in tier-II cities like Ahmedabad, and Vadodara, indicating geographical diversification of tech opportunities across the country.