Women earn less - 04/2001

Forty-four percent of European companies are reporting difficulties in filling vacancies in the IT industry, according to online news and recruitment service, silicon.com's third annual Skills Survey published recently. The skills crisis in the UK however, has eased in the last year, dropping from 47 percent of unfilled vacancies to 39 percent.

The Skills Survey 2001, which questioned over 3,000 IT professionals in the UK and Germany, also highlighted that women are taking on more business led roles in the IT industry, such as board directors, ecommerce officers and privacy officers - the latter two being newly-created roles in the industry. However, women were still earning less with 40 percent of women bringing in less than 25,000 compared to 23 percent of men.

Contrary to popular belief, the controversial IR35, which is due for judicial review this week, had little impact on the flexibility of the UK market as contractors were still tempted by the lure of high salaries with over 33 percent of contractors earning over E110,000 (70,000).

Other key findings of the survey are:

Contractors: One in two contractors now earn over E88,000 (55,000) compared to 42 percent last year.

Permanent: One in five permanent staff are bringing in over E88,000 (55,000) - double last year.

In Germany, permanent salaries were considerably lower with only 6 percent earning over E112,000 (70,000) compared to 13 percent in the UK.

Lisa Burroughes, telecoms and esociety editor at silicon.com was responsible for overseeing the survey and commented: It was surprising to note that the impact of the IR35 was having little effect on the flexibility of the market and that women, even in today's climate, are still earning less than men. These results only reinforce what other sectors are currently experiencing. This is one of the largest surveys we have conducted and was invaluable education in comparing the UK and German markets.

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