Ethnicity Pay Gap in Technology Insights — cord

cord data from tens of thousands of Engineers analysed to understand the pay gap between different ethnic minorities. Taken from the Insights Library on cord

Contextual Data

The average Asian engineer expects a salary of £78,454, while the average black Engineer expects a salary of £62,772 and the average white Engineer expects a salary of £71,,076. Expected salary is here taken as a proxy for actual salary (cord asks Engineers how much they expect to earn, not how much they currently earn) but, if accurate, this represents a difference of almost £15,000 between the average black and Asian Engineer — a 24.98% difference. White Engineers earn, on average, 13.22% more than black counterparts.

Below, the data is explored by function, job title (among Developers), seniority and years’ experience, in order to compare the difference between the salaries of Engineers of comparable ability and experience from different ethnic backgrounds.

Unless clarified by context, “Engineer” is used to refer to any professional who has created a profile for job-seeking purposes on cord. Engineers are carefully selected to be able to create profiles on cord. They require professional experience in Tech and Product-related roles, and are therefore specifically represent people working in these roles rather than, as many other statistics sometimes cover, the “Technology industry” as a whole. It is therefore felt that the data discussed here gives a unique insight into ethnic pay differentials among people working in Tech and Product-specific roles.

Salaries by Ethnic Background and Function

In every function, black Engineers earn less than Engineers of any other background, while Asian Engineers earn the most.

The disparity is greatest in Data, where the average Asian Engineer earns 33.07% more than the average black Engineer.

Developer Salaries by Ethnic Background and Job Title

Among Developers, black Developers are the lowest-paid in Back End, Full Stack and Front End positions, with Asian Developers the highest-paid in all three positions. The disparity is greatest in Back End, where Asian Developers earn 23.25% more than black Developers, and lowest in Front End, where Asian Developers earn 13.91% more than black counterparts.

Salaries by Ethnic Background and Seniority

Entry and Junior black Engineers tend to be paid more than their white counterparts, on average. However, from Mid level onwards, white Engineers tend to earn more than black Engineers.

At all experience levels, Asian and Other Engineers earn more than black and white Engineers. Engineers from other backgrounds are the highest earners at Lead and Leadership level.

Salaries by Ethnic Background and Years’ Experience

From 3 years’ experience and over, black Engineers earn less than Engineers of any other ethnic group with similar experience, despite being the second-highest earners among Engineers with 0 years’ experience.

In this experience bracket, Asian and other Engineers were typically the highest earners, with white Engineers generally being the third highest-earning group.

Key Insights

• On average, black Engineers earn 13.22% less than white Engineers and 24.98% less than Asian Engineers
• Black Engineers earn less than other ethnic groups in all functions, and in all job titles within Development
• Black Engineers earn less than other ethnic groups at every level of experience from 3 years’ upwards

Data Disclaimer

Data refers to 54,082 Engineers across all locations (primarily London, Europe/Remote, and New York) on cord.

Ethnic background is predicted by a third-party API ( https://namsor.app/) based on an Engineer’s name. The API makes mistakes, but is accurate in 90–95% of cases.

All salary data is based on Engineers’ expected salaries on cord, which is used as a proxy for actual salary.

Originally published at https://cord.co/insights