A recent report from Hired revealed that UK tech salaries are among the lowest in the world, and in comparison to 2016’s report is actually down by 1.7%. At present the average tech salary in London is £56k, the only other countries lower than this in the study are France and Singapore. When also factoring in living costs, people working and living in London are making 25% less than their counterparts in San Francisco, and 30% less than those living and working in New York.
Another aspect of the report also analysed the talent pool in which these people are drawn from. The UK’s technology employment pool is increasingly reliant on foreign tech talent, with 27% of individuals joining the tech sector from outside of the UK.
The UK’s lack of talent within this sector is something that is spoken about widely, STEM subjects are notoriously dominated by males. Accenture recently released a report “Girls in Stem” which found that more than half of parents who took part (52%) and teachers (57%) admitted to have made subconscious stereotypes about boys and girls with relation to STEM subjects. It also found that 54% of teachers have witnessed girls drop STEM subjects due to pressure from their parents.
Whilst there is no denial of how important the technology sector is for the UK and the world there are some shortcomings with both salaries and qualified candidates, especially within the UK. Emma McGuigan, senior managing director at Accenture Technology in the UK commented, “Inspiring more girls to pursue STEM subjects and careers will not only help us to address the skills gap in science and technology, it will also help us to create a more diverse workforce that truly represents the world we live in.”