Report Finds Stunning $35,000 Pay Gap Between Men, Women In Silicon Valley
(KPIX 5) -- For all its advances in technology, Silicon Valley is dealing with an old school problem.
"There are definitely more men than women in general," said Jenny Morton. "We do have some female engineers, there's not nearly as many as men."
Most of the men at Morton's startup in San Mateo are engineers and probably making more than most women.
The Joint Venture Silicon Valley found men with bachelor's degrees bring in almost $35,000 more than women with the same education.
And the higher the degree -- the wider the income gap.
"We have two very different skill sets," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. "We have men who are going to school and coming out with engineering degrees and women who are going through school and coming out with some other kind of degree and the end result is they can't do the jobs that the men are doing. It's the men's jobs that are in short supply so that drives up the salaries."
Despite the numbers, Enderle said now is actually the best time for a woman to break into the Valley.
"There's a lot of people that are starting to ask the question, 'why don't we have more women here?' and looking for ways to change that dynamic," Enderle said.
Newsweek's cover story last week stirred great debate about sexism in Silicon Valley.
Engineer Grace Zhang knows having any conversation in the boy clubs at her startup is tough.
"Sometimes you want to want to find a girl to talk to and it's kind of hard," Zhang said.
The overall wage gap in the Valley was just over 60 percent in 2013. That's compared with 20 percent in San Francisco. Statewide, men earn an average of 41 percent more than women.
