Is the UK technology industry good for women? Pay gap data 2026
Tech is one of the best paid and fastest growing parts of the UK economy, and it is also one of the most male dominated. So if you are a woman weighing up a career in software, data, product or any of the roles around them, the honest answer to “is the technology industry good for women” is: it can be, and the data tells you which corners of it to trust.
This guide looks at what the numbers actually show in 2026. We cover the technology gender pay gap, how many women work in tech, where the gap comes from, and the practical checks that separate a genuinely good tech employer from one with a slick careers page. It is written for the UK and built on published figures from the Office for National Statistics and the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
How many women work in UK tech
Start with representation, because pay follows it. According to the BCS Gender Diversity in the Tech Sector Report 2025, women make up around 22% of the UK IT workforce, roughly 441,000 women in tech roles. That share grew by about 1% in the last year and only around 3% over five years, so progress is real but slow.
That 22% sits well below women’s share of the workforce as a whole, which is close to half. The gap is widest in the most technical and senior roles, and narrower in adjacent functions such as product, design, delivery and tech marketing. Knowing this matters, because the experience of being one woman on a team of ten engineers is very different from working somewhere that has built a genuine mix.
The technology gender pay gap in 2026
Now to pay. The ONS measures pay by industry through its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and technology falls under the “information and communication” sector. On that measure, the full-time gender pay gap in the sector runs at roughly 9%, higher than the all-industries full-time gap, which the ONS put at about 6.9% in 2025.
A few things sit behind that headline. The technology gender pay gap is driven far more by which jobs women hold than by unequal pay for the same job. Men dominate the highest paid technical and leadership roles, while women are more concentrated in lower and mid paid functions, so the average is pulled apart even where individual pay is fair. This is the difference between the gender pay gap and equal pay, and it matters when you read any single figure. Our guide on how to read a company’s gender pay gap figures explains how to tell the two apart.
The other thing to watch is the bonus gap. Tech pays a large share of total reward through bonuses, equity and incentives, and these often show a wider gap than base pay. When you look up an employer, check the bonus figures as carefully as the hourly ones.
Why the gap exists in tech
The technology gender pay gap is not mainly a story of women being paid less for identical work. It is a pipeline and progression story. Fewer girls take computing through school and university, fewer women enter technical roles, and those who do are more likely to leave mid career or stall before senior level. Each stage narrows the pool, and by the time you reach engineering leadership the imbalance is stark.
Culture compounds it. Long-hours expectations, limited flexibility, and a shortage of visible women in senior roles all push women out at the points where pay accelerates. None of this is inevitable, and the better employers actively counter it, but it explains why a sector with strong average pay still reports a meaningful gap.
What makes a tech employer genuinely good for women
The averages hide huge variation. Some UK tech companies report pay gaps in low single digits with women across all pay quartiles, while others sit above 20% with almost no women in senior roles. The sector average tells you the weather, not the company. To judge an individual employer, look for a few concrete signals.
Look at where women sit, not just the headline gap. An employer with women spread across all four pay quartiles is in a different place from one where they cluster at the bottom. Look at the trend over several years, because a gap that is narrowing shows intent. Look for genuine flexible and hybrid working, transparent pay bands, paid family leave that goes beyond the statutory minimum, and real support for returners coming back from a career break. For more on spotting these markers, our guides to finding jobs that fit you and inclusive recruitment go deeper.
How to check before you join
You do not have to guess. Every UK employer with 250 or more staff publishes its gender pay gap figures on the government service at gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk, free to search. Look the company up, read the median as well as the mean, check the quartiles and the bonus gap, and compare it with other tech employers rather than the whole economy.
The RecruitHer company gender scorecard does this comparison for you, pulling the published data together with the trend and a sector benchmark so you can see how a tech employer stacks up against its real peers. If you want the full method, read how the scorecard works. The point is simple: tech can be an excellent career for women, with strong pay, flexibility and demand for skills, as long as you choose the employers that have done the work, and the data lets you choose with your eyes open.
Frequently asked questions
What is the gender pay gap in the UK technology industry?
On ONS figures for the “information and communication” sector, which covers technology, the full-time gender pay gap runs at around 9%, higher than the all-industries full-time gap of about 6.9% reported for 2025. Individual tech employers vary widely around that average, so always check the specific company.
How many women work in tech in the UK?
Around 22% of the UK IT workforce is female, roughly 441,000 women, according to the BCS Gender Diversity in the Tech Sector Report 2025. That share is growing slowly, by about 1% in the last year.
Is the technology gender pay gap about unequal pay?
Mostly no. The gap is driven by women being under-represented in the highest paid technical and leadership roles rather than being paid less for the same job. That is why a company can report a wide gap while still paying fairly for identical work.
Which tech companies are best for women?
The ones with women across all pay quartiles, a narrowing pay gap over time, genuine flexibility and visible women in senior roles. Check an employer’s published figures and compare them within the sector rather than against the whole economy.
See how employers score for women on RecruitHer’s company gender scorecard.
This is educational information, not legal advice. Pay, rights and an employer’s obligations can vary by contract, role and circumstances. For impartial guidance, contact ACAS, and look up any employer’s figures on the official gender pay gap service.
Last reviewed: June 2026