09/09/2021
According to the article “Silicon Valley Stays on Top as Tech Salaries Climb Across U.S.”, the average salary of a tech professional in the U.S. increased to $97,859 in 2021. With trends pointing to massive growth in the coming years, the question has remained: will we see the same trends in diversity? As a Latinx woman who identifies with her indigenous roots of Nahuatl & Purepecha lineages, I sit as an anomaly in an industry with very little diversity in terms of gender and race. The statistics all reveal the same pattern, very little women of color in the tech industry.
In a report conducted by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission one of their key findings reads: “the high tech sector employed a larger share of whites (63.5 percent to 68.5 percent), Asian Americans (5.8 percent to 14 percent) and men (52 percent to 64 percent), and a smaller share of African Americans (14.4 percent to 7.4 percent), Hispanics (13.9 percent to 8 percent), and women (48 percent to 36 percent).” The report, “Diversity in High Tech”, was based on the findings on 2013 Employer Information Reports, and almost a decade later the trends remain the same. In May of 2021 the article “Women in Tech Statistics Show the Industry Has a Long Way to Go” reported that about 34.4% of women make up the workforce for the five largest tech companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Additionally, there are fewer instances of promotion to executive level or higher paying roles within the larger Latinx population, with a minuscule percentage receiving VC in comparison to their white counterparts. These statistics are daunting and change is long overdue.
As we grapple with the permanent changes the pandemic has brought forth, now is the perfect time for the BIPOC community to disrupt the tech industry’s monoculture and combat the increasing digital divide.
