Technology is essential to the Canadian economy and so are its workers.
To ensure that technology benefits everyone in Canada, we need to study the composition of the tech workforce and determine any improvements that could help boost progress and productivity.
Last year the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University explored broad trends that relate to the numbers of tech workers in the country (and their compensation) in the first part of a series titled Canada’s Got Tech Talent.
Today the think tank released the second part of their series which breaks down the demographic composition of tech workers in Canada to understand who is benefitting from these jobs, and which groups within the tech workers category are most advantaged.
Not surprisingly the report found that opportunities in tech are not distributed equally across all demographics. Here is what they found:
- The gender pay gap in Canada’s tech workforce has almost tripled since 2016. According to the latest Census data, men in the Canadian tech sector earned $20,000 on average more than women annually. The gender pay gap has grown since 2016, when men earned $7,200 more than women.
- Visible minorities in Canada are more likely to hold tech jobs, but are underpaid compared to non-visible minorities. Overall, 6.6 percent of workers in Canada with a visible-minority identity work in tech, compared to 3.8 percent of non-visible minorities. However, those with visible-minority identities only earn an average of $78,800 a year compared to $93,000 for non-visible minorities.
- Non-permanent-resident tech workers earn only $52,000 a year compared to immigrant and non-immigrant tech workers, who make $88,000 and $89,800 respectively. Canada’s efforts to attract foreign tech workers have worked—tech workers are disproportionately either immigrants or non-permanent-residents, but they are paid less than their counterparts.
- Indigenous Peoples in Canada earn on average $14,000 less than non-Indigenous tech workers annually. Indigenous Peoples are also 70 percent less likely than others in Canada to work in tech. Only 1.4 per cent of employed Indigenous Peoples are currently working in tech occupations, compared to 4.8 percent of non-Indigenous workers.
- On average, Canadian tech workers earn $40,000 more per year than workers employed in other fields. The salary gap with non-tech work has narrowed since 2016. Canada’s tech workers, however, are still underpaid compared to the same occupations in the United States.
Concerned about the significant gender pay gap in the report, April Hicke of Toast told Techtalent.ca, “This is exactly why we need pay transparency to be mandated across Canada and the removal of the requirement of ‘Canadian work experience’ for candidates which we have seen be weaponized during salary negotiations.”
Toast has become Canada’s first female-focused talent partner aimed at placing women in tech companies.
Hicke continued, “This is why we have decided at Toast to pivot and ensure when we are placing women into tech roles, that we are assessing the salaries of the rest of the team to ensure fair pay for women. This ensures organizations are not just performative hiring women, but rather actually elevating them and ensuring they’re paid fairly.”
Check out the complete Dais report online here.