Atlanta has highest man-woman pay gap in tech

A Utah Republican argued in favor of the gender pay gap.

A Utah Republican argued in favor of the gender pay gap.

There are so many times when you really want your city to be number one, when topping the rankings means you win acclaim, not to mention the ever-so-valuable scent of hipness.

This is not one of them.

That is, not if you want to attract the young, the technically-savvy and egalitarian-minded folks that crucial to building an economy led by the technology sector.

And here we are: Number one in gender bias.

In tech, that is. In a survey of the nation's largest tech centers, the largest disparity in pay between men and women was in Atlanta: a yawning, 72 percent gap, according to the ungrammatically named Comparably, an online source of information about compensation and work culture.

In its calculations, Comparably said it combined median salary and bonus.

Comparably said it surveyed more than 10,000 people working in the tech sector to come up with the calculations.

In Atlanta, the survey found women’s median compensation was $60,000, which is roughly 20 percent above the area’s median pay for all workers. In comparison, men’s median compensation was $103,100 – 72 percent higher than women and more than 100 percent higher than the metro median.

Atlanta’s gap, according to Comparably’s survey, was significantly greater than that of the runner up. In Minneapolis, women made a median of $66,000 and men $100,000 – a 52 percent gap.

Right behind at number three was Washington, D.C., with a 51 percent pay gap.

The most equitable pay was in Salt Lake City, according to the survey: a 10 percent gap. Out in Utah’s big city, women had a median salary of $80,000 and men $88,200.

By department, finance had the largest gap between the pay for women and the pay for men.

Nationally, there were just two departments where women’s median was higher: executive and administration, Comparably said.

The survey includes pay by department for Atlanta, as well.

And the gap differs by age. The smallest gap is among employees of 50 or more. The largest gap is for those between 18 and 26.

By ethnicity, the largest gap is among whites, although there is at least a double digit gap for all groups, except Native Americans, whose median pay is nearly the same, Comparably said.

Comparably is based in California. Of course.