Male tech graduates earn higher wages than female graduates – study
A significantly greater proportion of Israeli male hi-tech degree graduates earn in excess of NIS 13,000 per month than women with the same education, according to data published Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
A total of 57.7% of men who graduated in 2010-’11 with hi-tech degrees, such as computer science or engineering, earned more than NIS 13,000 net salary, compared with 41.3% of women.
More than half (53.8%) of all hi-tech graduates earned such a salary, compared with just 12% of Israelis who graduated with degrees in other fields.
No significant differences in wages were discovered between graduates of technology-related degrees from universities and colleges, the CBS statistics revealed.
Approximately half of all Israelis employed today in hi-tech (49.9%) studied engineering and architecture, and almost one-quarter (23%) studied mathematics, statistics and computer science.
A further 9.8% studied social sciences, and 6% studied business and management courses, with little disparity in employment rates between university and college graduates.
Nearly one-quarter of men (23.7%) who completed undergraduate degrees in all fields are employed in hi-tech today, compared with just 8.1% of women.
Less disparity was noted, however, among the proportion of women employed in the technology sector who graduated with hi-tech degrees (72.3%) and the number of men graduating with the same degrees (76.1%).
The study also noted that among Jewish hi-tech sector employees, 76.5% were graduates with hi-tech degrees. Among Israeli-Arabs, only 54.7% of employees graduated with hi-tech studies.
Among Jewish students who commenced their hi-tech degrees in 2010’11, 63.4% defined themselves as secular Jews, significantly greater than their share (40.9%) of the Jewish population aged 25-34. Only 4.1% of students were considered ultra-Orthodox (haredi).
“The data published by the CBS emphasizes once again the well-known fact that the population groups that find it difficult to integrate into the Israeli hi-tech ecosystem are mainly women and members of the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors, who already suffer from social exclusion,” said Ifat Baron-Goldberg, founder and executive director of itworks, a Netanya-based nonprofit working to integrate diverse populations into the hi-tech sector.
“Many obstacles prevent the integration of these groups, including cultural, political and conceptual barriers, preventing their fair and just integration into the labor market,” Baron-Goldberg said. “Solutions for the integration of women, Arabs and ultra-Orthodox are abundant, but the first step is the existence of a desire for gender and sectoral equality, and placing the issue at the top of the Israeli hi-tech agenda.”
Among those who studied hi-tech degrees, 62.9% said their proficiency in English was very good, compared to 57% studying STEM subjects and 43.1% studying other degrees.
Over two-thirds (67.7%) of students commencing university hi-tech degrees in 2010-’11 were born to at least one parent with an academic degree, compared with half (49.6%) of students studying at academic colleges.