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A new study from Seattle civic data startup LiveStories reveals that the gender pay gap in its hometown is significantly wider than cities with similar populations, like Boston and Denver — and it increases based on the education level of workers.
LiveStories compared median incomes of workers over 25 in Seattle and found that women earn about 78 cents for every dollar men earn.
Among more educated Seattleites, the gap is greater. Women with graduate degrees earn 66 cents for every dollar men earn.
“A deeper dive into the data reveals why,” the LiveStories report says. “The more educated Seattleites are, the wider the gender pay gap becomes. This pattern points to a continuing struggle to deal with gender equality in the beating heart of Seattle’s economy — the tech industry.”
The LiveStories report comes amid a series of unsettling developments that reveal the tech industry’s issues with gender equity and sexual harassment.
On Monday, Google fired an engineer over a long essay claiming that women are underrepresented in tech because of biological differences between the sexes. In June, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned based on the findings of an investigation into allegations of a discriminatory company culture from a former female engineer. Around the same time, The New York Times published similar stories of discrimination from a number of women in tech.
“Tech is a huge part of Seattle’s economy, and as such, this data shows how much further this industry has to go toward equitable hiring practices,” the LiveStories report says. “But tech is not the whole story of Seattle’s wage gap. Many tech workers do not have advanced degrees, and many Seattleites with advanced degrees do not work in tech. The data should be a wake-up call for every industry in Seattle to make sure women with advanced degrees are not getting underpaid.”
