Eliminating the Gender Wage Gap for Tech Pros With Security Clearance

As President Obama signed two executive orders Tuesday to narrow the gap in wages for men and women in the federal contracting workforce, some new data points suggest such efforts may have a positive impact in eliminating the wage gap for female technology professionals who hold an active security clearance.

The data released Tuesday by Dice Holdings shows a gender wage gap for professionals overall with an active federal security clearance, with men outearning women in total compensation ($91,309 to $76,838). These comparisons were made holding constant the years of experience, education and occupation level between the two gender groups.

“We’ve seen private industry address the gender gap in a meaningful way,” said Michael Durney, president and CEO of Dice Holdings, in a statement. “By taking these steps, our government is highlighting their own hiring gap and equal pay for equal work is simply the table stakes in the competition for talent.”

The good news for technology professionals across all industries: The salary gap for male and female tech workers disappeared in 2009. Since that time, men and women tech workers have been earning equal pay, provided they have equal levels of experience and education and parallel job titles.

Dice’s 2013-2014 Salary Survey shows that while men outearned women overall by an average annual income of $89,468 to $81,214, the difference stems from the fact that the two gender groups tend to have different levels of experience, education and job positions.

“While we have work to do to close the ‘position gap’ between men and women in private industry, female technology professionals should rest assured they are getting paid equal to their male colleagues and just need to focus on career growth,” Durney said. “And if they aren’t in a place where that is true – there are many employers looking to hire.”