Solar Staff, an HR tech company connecting businesses with freelancers from 190 countries, and one of the winners of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Ranking, conducted a study to support the representation of women in the burgeoning freelancing sector. The company analyzed the salary of 100,000 male and female freelancers, to identify if a gender gap is present in contract employment. The findings reveal that, on average, men earn 58% more than women. The pay gap in project-based employment varies by profession, and in some spheres, it can reach up to 135%.
Despite efforts to address it, the gender wage gap persists across the spectrum and the globe. Various sources indicate that women working as full-time employees earn, on average, between 12.7% and 21.8% less than men. Solar Staff’s hourly rate statistics indicate an even wider gap, highlighting the issue’s relevance for both full-time and hourly workers.
The study revealed:
- As the number of contractors surges annually, the share of female contractors is also increasing both in the US and EU. In 2023, women comprised 43% of US contractors , while in Europe, women even surpassed men by 11%.
- Despite the doubling of the total number of US and EU companies in Solar Staff’s database and the increasing prevalence of female contractors, the data for 2023 reveals that only 39% of US companies and 38% of EU companies have employed at least one female contractor. This represents a global trend.Additionally, both regions even showed a decrease in the number of female contractors employed compared to 2022.
- Considering the top specializations among female contractors, it’s evident that even within fields where women are well-represented, such as design (constituting 17% of female contractors), a considerable gender pay gap persists. For instance, compared to their male counterparts, female graphic designers in the US earn 39% less, and female web designers earn half as much.
- Looking at the top specializations among male contractors, in which the proportion of men is several times higher than women, like programming (men take 85% of the market), the trend is the same. Female programmers, constituting 6.3% of female contractors in the US, also face a widening pay gap, earning 44% less, with this gap on the rise (+24% since 2022).
- In lower-paying fields like tutoring, popular among female contractors in Europe, women earn only 20% less than men, while in call center work, European women even earn 8% more than men. However, in higher-paying roles like copywriting, where women outnumber men by 34%, men still earn 135% more than women.
“Our mission as an HR-tech company is to make freelancing accessible for all, regardless of where you live or who you are. This is why we analyze potential difficulties that project workers may encounter, including the gender pay gap. Upon analyzing the data, we discovered that the situation is even more complex than we initially thought. Through our research, we aim to raise awareness about this issue among the market and business community, catalyzing efforts to address it.” said Pavel Shynkarenko, founder and CEO at Solar Staff.
Each year, a growing number of women choose to become independent contractors. Flexibility outweighs stability for 92% of working women, a crucial consideration for those balancing childcare or caregiving responsibilities. Over the past year, the number of freelancers in the U.S. reached 64 million, with women constituting almost half of this workforce. In Europe, women also continue to have a greater presence in the freelance workforce, comprising 35% of the total.
“I am a woman in a profession dominated by men, and I have faced various forms of difficulties, including wage discrimination. The statistics we see today, analyzing the incomes of 100,000 men and women, confirm that the problem has not disappeared and exists even in areas where payment is made hourly and there should be universal rates for both men and women.” – said Aleksandra Spivak, mentor in Cyber Sisters, community-focused organization supporting women in tech, and product manager of AI products at Solar Staff.
As a company that focuses on gender equality, Solar Staff remains committed to monitoring these trends and advocating for measures that promote parity in the workforce.
If we want to see a world where the gender gap is non-existent, it will take dedicated commitment from individual companies, like Solar Staff, who recognize that change begins from within.
