Are government attempts to boost diversity in tech too little, too late?

Charlotte Allery, Employment Solicitor in the Technology Sector at Coffin Mew, argues that the government must do more to promote diversity in the technology industry

Despite being an inherently innovative and trend-setting sector, reports show that just 22 per centof technology business directors are women and only 19 per cent of the technology workforce are female, with figures even lower in the gaming sub-sector.

Given that 49 per cent of UK workers are women, it is unsurprising that the Government has launched initiatives to help boost gender diversity in the technology sector.

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£18.5 million investment

Last year, the Government announced that it would be injecting £18.5 million into the tech industry to enhance skills in data science and AI, and assist more adults to upskill and retrain in this progressive area. £5 million of this fund will be used to incentivise tech businesses to use AI and automation to develop flexible and inclusive online training programmes for adults.

The remainder of the pledged funds will afford workers the chance to retrain in data science and AI, by funding new degree and Masters conversion courses and scholarships. The scholarships will be made available to support applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds, including those returning to work after a career break and under-represented groups in the AI and technology workforce, including women and those from minority ethnic backgrounds.

It is hoped that 2,500 people will be enrolled in the new courses by 2023. The Government believes that encouraging diversity in the sector is critical to ensure the best design of new technology, including the fair and accurate development of algorithms, and tackling the greatest social challenges, such as protecting our environment.

It is unsurprising that the Government have announced new funds of this nature, given that the tech sector reportedly employs more than 2.1 million people and currently contributes £184 billion to the economy every year. Whilst it is too early to judge the take-up and success of the Government's plans, the cash injection is another step in the right direction in addressing the gender imbalance within the industry.

Gender pay gap reporting

The new funding pot joins the gender pay reporting regulations in the list of government diversity measures; the reporting rules strive for transparency in pay to help address gender disparity, not only in the technology industry, but across all sectors.

From April 2018, the gender pay rules have required employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations annually, displaying how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. The reports must include the difference in hourly rates between men and women, the difference in bonuses, and the proportion of men and women who receive a bonus.

What often makes for interesting reading in the tech sector is that the report must also include the number of men and women in each pay quartile. Businesses must publish the full pay report on their website every year, as well as the Government's own public database.

As innovators at heart and modernisers in workplace culture, tech businesses should be leading the way in closing the pay gap, but unfortunately the reports for the first year of reporting showed that the sector was falling behind.

Grand Theft Auto developer, Rockstar North, revealed an average hourly pay rate that is 64 per cent lower for women and the women's average bonus pay was 84 per cent lower than men's. The company's report in 2019 did not fare much better, with both examples rising - the average hourly pay rate was 66 per cent less for women and the average bonus pay was 85per cent lower.

As the deadline date for this year's report fast approaches, it will be interesting to see whether these worrying figures continue. Fujitsu Services, the IT products and services giant, is ahead of the game and has already published its 2019/2020 report. The business' first report in 2017/2018 revealed a 17 per cent pay gap in hourly rates and 40 per cent pay gap in average bonus pay.

Things have got better, with Fujitsu showing a 16 per cent hourly pay gap and a 26 per cent bonus gap for this year. Also improving their figures is Revenue & Customs Digital Technology Services, the in-house IT provider owned by HMRC. This year's report exposes a mean hourly pay rate that is 22 per cent lower for women, compared with a 24 per cent gap in the prior year.

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Are government attempts to boost diversity in tech too little, too late?

Charlotte Allery, Employment Solicitor in the Technology Sector at Coffin Mew, argues that the government must do more to promote diversity in the technology industry

Mean bonus pay increased radically, with bonus pay that was 8.1 per cent lower for women last year, to 5.1 per cent higher than men's this year, even though women occupy only 9 per cent of the highest paid quartile. Amazon's largest UK business, Amazon UK Services, has led the way. It achieved almost complete income parity in 2018, and no pay gap at all, at 0 per cent, in 2019's report. Hopefully, Amazon will continue this trend when this year's report is published.

Whilst there appears to be a general pattern of improvement, there are very few technology businesses that are even close to the parity Amazon UK Services has achieved.

It is a sign of the times that a US compensation advisory firm, 10X Ascend, recently announced a new service to help female senior technology professionals negotiate their compensation packages. The firm comments that the package is to ‘help women feel as empowered as men at the negotiation table' and that ‘most of the world's best tech talent doesn't realise…what they're worth'.

Although services like this and the government's efforts to boost diversity are undoubtedly welcome and will help the matter, it is likely to take years to turn the historic disparity within the profession around. With coding classes for children at school becoming popular and the use of AI and technology within the classroom becoming more prominent, young boys and girls alike are becoming more alive to the career opportunities that the technology industry represents.

Hopefully the younger generation of future women tech entrepreneurs will be inspired by the female technology leaders making waves, including the likes of Cindy Rose, CEO of Microsoft UK, Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, and Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank. For the time being, let's wait to see what the rest of the technology industry's gender pay gap reports have in store and whether the upcoming technology conversion courses pave the way for gender equality in tech.

Charlotte Allery is Employment Solicitor in the Technology Sector at Coffin Mew