High Tech, Low Inclusion: Diversity in the High Tech Workforce and Sector 2014 - 2022

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Contents

Executive Summary

I. Introduction

II. Definitions 

III. Findings of Prior Reports on Growth and Diversity in High Tech

IV. The Characteristics of the High Tech Workforce

V.  Diversity and Advancement in the High Tech Workforce

VI.  Diversity in the High Tech Sector

VII. EEOC Charge Filings & Litigation in the High Tech Sector

VIII. Conclusion

Appendix

Endnotes

Executive Summary

In the six decades since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to remedy discrimination and provide equal employment opportunity to all workers, the American economy and workforce have changed significantly. One of the most significant changes has been the expansion of the high tech sector. High tech workers have revolutionized the way we communicate, access information, and work. The products high tech workers create are transforming productivity across many industries such as healthcare, transportation, and energy. High tech jobs offer higher pay and more stability than many other occupations, particularly if the high tech job is within the high tech sector. High tech job opportunities are projected to continue to grow and can provide meaningful economic security to workers who are able to access these opportunities. Diversity in the high tech workforce can support innovation while positively impacting employers’ bottom line by helping ensure that new technologies meet the needs of America’s increasingly diverse population.

As the primary federal agency responsible for enforcing the laws against employment discrimination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) examines workforce trends to understand where barriers to equal opportunity may exist. In this report, we focus on the high tech workforce, which we define as consisting of workers in 56 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations regardless of industry. We also examine the high tech sector, which is comprised of industries where there is a high concentration of high tech workers (at least 20% of the industry workforce), but also includes many workers in non-STEM occupations like administrative, sales workers, laborers, and helpers. In 2016 and 2017, the EEOC and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyzed the sex and race/ethnic diversity in the high tech workforce and sector.^[1] This report examines the sex and race/ethnic diversity in the years since. It also builds on the prior reports by profiling the high tech workforce by age; analyzing sex, racial, and ethnic diversity by employer size and occupation within the high tech sector; and describing the most common types of charges of discrimination filed with the EEOC and the EEOC’s recent litigation in the high tech sector. 

Our findings show that the high tech workforce continued to become more racially and ethnically diverse between 2014 and 2022 with workers of color making up 40.1% of the high tech workforce in 2022. Despite some progress, our findings raise concerns about the barriers to equal opportunity that exist in the high tech workforce and sector. We found that, in 2022:

HIGH TECH WORKFORCE

HIGH TECH SECTOR

Our findings demonstrate the need for concerted effort to address discriminatory barriers in the high tech workforce and high tech sector and achieve equal opportunity for all workers. Charges of discrimination illustrate the types of discriminatory barriers workers face, but since workers may fear coming forward due to the potential for retaliation, filings with the EEOC are likely just a sliver of the overall discrimination faced by workers. In recent years, some high tech business leaders have made commitments to increasing diversity; our findings show that proactive efforts are needed to ensure that the opportunities in this growing sector of the economy are available to talented workers of all backgrounds. The EEOC will continue working to address discrimination in high tech by investigating and resolving charges of discrimination and, when necessary, pursuing litigation. The EEOC also provides technical assistance and engages in extensive education and outreach efforts that can assist employers in complying with the laws enforced by the EEOC and support their lawful and appropriate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts. 

I. Introduction

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces the federal civil rights laws prohibiting job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability and genetic information.^[2] The EEOC is committed not only to investigating charges of discrimination, but also to keeping abreast of workforce trends and informing the public about labor market dynamics that may adversely affect equal opportunities for workers.  Addressing barriers in hiring and promotion is a top strategic priority for the EEOC.^[3] To do so effectively, the agency must pay particular attention to potential barriers in large and growing industries and occupations that offer substantial employment opportunities to workers. For this reason, the EEOC examined diversity in the high tech workforce and high tech sector in 2016 and does so again in this report. 

The high tech workforce has grown at almost 3 times the rate of the total U.S. workforce.

Our findings detailed in this report show the continued underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic, and female workers in both the high tech workforce and the high tech sector in 2022. Women and all workers of color are also underrepresented as high tech managers in the high tech workforce and as executives and management in the high tech sector. Equal access to high tech employment opportunities is particularly important to workers given higher pay, greater stability, and the projected continued growth in the high tech occupations.

High tech jobs are projected to continue to grow in coming years and tend to be higher paid and relatively more stable than non-technical occupations. High tech companies and industries are those that employ high proportions of workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations.^[4]The high tech workforce has grown at almost three times the rate (2.3-2.4 % annually depending on the definition used and timeframe) of the total U.S. workforce (0.9 % annually).^[5] The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the STEM workforce will continue to grow at three times the rate of the total U.S. workforce through 2032 (11% versus 3%).^[6] 

High tech jobs tend to be higher paid and relatively more stable than other non-technical occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, in 2023, the median annual wage for technology-related occupations was $101,650 compared to $48,060 for the total U.S. workforce.^[7] High tech workers also are less likely to experience unemployment than the general workforce, a trend that typically persists even in economic downturns.^[8] And while high tech industries are not immune to downsizing as evidenced by layoffs that occurred in 2023 and 2024, in the decade following the Great Recession (2007-2009) unemployment was consistently lowest among high tech workers.^[9] By 2019, the unemployment rate among the high tech workforce dropped to 2.2% compared to 3.7% for the total U.S. workforce.^[10] More recently, business closures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred an unprecedented increase in unemployment and adversely impacted workers in non-technical occupations more than those in high tech jobs. The unemployment rate for the general workforce grew 11 percentage points from 4.7% to 15.7 %, which was almost double the 6% increase in unemployment among high tech workers.^[11] 

High tech employers may also benefit from more diverse workforces.^[12] Innovation, a hallmark of the high tech sector, is enhanced when diverse teams are a part of research and development.^[13] Additionally, research has shown that diverse companies attract talent, improve employee satisfaction and retention, and increase customers and sales revenue.^[14] Finally, employees in more diverse workplaces also are less likely to experience harassment.^[15] All of this means that diversity can benefit an employer’s financial performance.

Diverse teams also may result in better performance by mitigating bias. As the National Institute of Standards and Technology explained in its Special Publication: Towards a Standard for Identifying and Managing Bias in Artificial Intelligence, early research has shown that when developers had similar demographic backgrounds, they tended to make similar misjudgments, while diverse teams resulted in better performance.^[16] Other researchers have similarly found that diverse teams have these bias reduction benefits. ^[17] 

Diversity can benefit an employer's financial performance. Diverse teams also may result in better performance by mitigating bias.

This report assesses the diversity of the high tech workforce and sector, specifically on race, ethnicity, age, and sex. It builds on the findings of two previous separate reports—a 2016 EEOC report and a 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)—which observed lower racial, ethnic, and sex diversity in the high tech sector and workforce than other sectors.^[18] The EEOC also convened a 2016 hearing in which stakeholders identified barriers to accessing opportunities in the high tech sector, as well as possible solutions including strengthening diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts.^[19]

This report also expands on the prior reports by analyzing age diversity. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) was passed to combat unfounded assumptions that age impacted ability.^[20] While age discrimination hurts older workers, a lack of age diversity also can hurt organizations, because studies have shown that age-diverse workforces can improve organizational performance and have the potential to improve company performance.^[21] Older workers have been found to have more engagement and to be equally or more innovative when compared to their younger counterparts.^[22] However, if, for example, employers stereotype older employees as unable to innovate or keep up with new technologies, trends and skills, these employees may experience differential treatment in obtaining and maintaining a job.^[23] On the other hand, some high tech employers may value older workers’ knowledge and job experience, which in turn, may translate into more secure employment (i.e., lower unemployment).^[24] As research has shown that age discrimination remains a concern, we examine the high tech workforce by age.^[25]

We also build on the prior reports in two other ways. First, we assess the presence of workers of color and women in high tech managerial jobs specifically and across occupational categories in the high tech sector. This analysis may reveal barriers to advancement even for those who are able to obtain high tech positions or work in the high tech sector.

Second, we describe the most common types of charges filed with the EEOC alleging workplace discrimination in the high tech sector relative to charges from other industries.^[26] Studies and surveys of workers have shown that workers report high levels of discrimination and harassment in industries that are part of the high tech sector.^[27]We note that an analysis of the charge filing data does not necessarily show the overall prevalence of discrimination, because many workers who experience discrimination may not file charges with the EEOC for a variety of reasons, or a subsequent investigation may reveal that a charge lacks merit. Nonetheless, the high frequency of certain types of discrimination charges illustrates the types of barriers to equal opportunity within the sector.

Although this report does not analyze immigration status or the representation of disabled workers, social science research and the EEOC’s charge data suggest that discriminatory barriers likely exist in high tech both for workers who are immigrants and those who have a disability. For example, employers use the H-1B visa program to employ foreign workers to fill high tech positions, ^[28] and in fiscal year 2022, 86% of all H-1B visas were issued to workers born in Asia.^[29] Workers on visas are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Having entered the U.S. on an employer-sponsored visa, these workers face several known risk factors for harassment including (1) a power imbalance between the worker and employer, (2) perceived or real lack of job mobility, and (3) social and cultural isolation.^[30] In addition, because these workers often are reliant on their employer’s sponsorship to seek citizenship and may risk having to leave the U.S. if separated from their employer, they are less likely to complain if they experience workplace mistreatment, including discrimination or harassment.^[31] Research also suggests workers with disabilities are underrepresented in the high tech workforce.^[32] The National Science Foundation reported that workers with disabilities represented only 3% of the STEM workforce. Our analysis of the EEOC charge data below also indicates that some barriers likely exist for workers with disabilities in the high tech workforce and sector (see Section VII below). 

The report proceeds as follows: Section II describes how we define the high tech workforce and the high tech sector for this report. In section III, we review key findings from the EEOC and GAO reports on racial, ethnic, and sex diversity of the workforce in the high tech sector.^[33] Section IV describes the high tech workforce in 2022. Section V examines changes in racial, ethnic, sex, and age diversity of the high tech workforce between 2014 and 2022. Section VI examines the diversity of workers in the high tech sector by occupation and employer size. Finally, Section VII uses the EEOC administrative enforcement data from 2022 to compare the types of charges of discrimination filed against high tech companies with those filed against companies in other sectors. It also provides an overview of the EEOC’s recent litigation efforts in the high tech sector.

II. Definitions 

In this report, we use a common definition, which was also used in the GAO report, of the high tech workforce as comprising workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations.^[34] We first identify 56 STEM occupations using the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) manual.^[35] Using the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) data, we then categorize workers as being in the high tech workforce if they are in one of the 56 STEM occupations, two of which are managers of STEM workers.^[36] 

Both the prior EEOC and the GAO reports showed that industries that have high concentrations of high tech workers, called the high tech sector in aggregate, carry implications for diversity and wages among all workers in the sector, not just those in high tech occupations. Therefore, this report seeks also to understand diversity among all employees in the high tech sector. There is not a standard definition for what makes an employer or industry “high tech,” so defining the high tech sector is more subjective than the high tech workforce. Industries that output technological products and services such as software publishing or computer hardware manufacturing, as described by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry labels, are obvious choices for inclusion in the high tech sector.^[37] Some of the most innovative technology companies in recent years, however, have disrupted traditionally non-technical industries such as in retail sales, travel services, and automobile manufacturing, and employ many STEM workers. We thus use a similar method to that used in the prior GAO and EEOC reports to define the high tech sector as industries in which the percentage of high tech workers is above a certain threshold. 

Using 2022 ACS data, we use a threshold of an industry comprised of at least 20% high tech workers to define it as high tech and then aggregate all such industries into the high tech sector.^[38] Table 1 shows the 14 industries that employed at least 20% high tech workers in 2022. For each industry, we show the total workforce in that industry, the number of high tech workers, and the percentage of high tech workers.^[39]

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[40] Counts exclude persons in the armed forces and persons not in the labor force.

III. Findings of Prior Reports on Growth and Diversity in High Tech

The prior EEOC report focused on racial, ethnic, and sex diversity among all employees within the high tech sector using data from the EEOC’s 2014 EEO-1 employer reports.^[41] The GAO report described racial, ethnic, and sex diversity both of the U.S. high tech workforce and of all employees within the high tech sector using 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).^[42] Despite using different data sources, years, and definitions, the two reports showed similar patterns of underrepresentation in the high tech workforce and the high tech sector. 

Specifically, the EEOC and GAO reports showed overall disparities in the employment of women, Black, and Hispanic workers in the high tech workforce and high tech sector when compared to other industries and the overall workforce. We present selected results from each report in Table 2.^[43] (The GAO report rounded some results to the whole number so for this data table we report all results as whole numbers.) Female workers were only 36% of the high tech sector in 2014 and 22% of the high tech workforce in 2015 despite making up 49% of the total U.S. workforce in 2015. White workers and Asian workers comprised higher proportions of the high tech workforce and employees in the high tech sector than in the overall U.S. workforce. White workers were 69% of the high tech sector in 2014, 67% of the high tech workforce in 2015, and 63% of the overall workforce in 2015. Asian workers were 14% of the high tech sector, 17% of the high tech workforce, and 5% of the overall U.S. workforce. Black workers (7% of the high tech sector; 7% of the high tech workforce), Hispanic workers (8% of the high tech sector; 7% of the high tech workforce), and workers of Other Races (2% of the high tech sector; 2% of the high tech workforce) were underrepresented among the high tech workforce and in the high tech sector. The total U.S. workforce in 2015 was comprised of significantly more Black (12%) and Hispanic (17%) workers.

Sources: EEOC and GAO Reports.^[44] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

While the GAO report documented some increase in diversity in the high tech workforce with the proportion of all workers of color rising from 26% of the high tech workforce in 2005 to 33% in 2015, those gains were not shared equally across all groups. The GAO found that while the number of Black workers in the high tech workforce had grown, there had been no statistically significant increase in Black workers’ representation as a percentage of the high tech workforce.^[45] Similarly, although the number of Hispanic high tech workers had statistically significant increases, they remained a smaller proportion of the high tech workforce than their representation in the overall workforce.^[46] Further, the proportion of female high tech workers in the high tech workforce did not change in the decade prior to 2015, remaining at 22%, the same as in 2005. Thus, overall, the high tech workforce failed to reflect the sex and race/ethnic diversity present in the total U.S. workforce.^[47]

The GAO report also observed that female workers and Black and Hispanic high tech workers were more likely to be employed in jobs with employers outside of the high tech sector. This was significant, because median earnings for high tech workers outside the high tech sector were $78,000 in 2015, while within the high tech sector median earnings were $89,000.^[48] Table 3 replicates those results. In 2015, female tech workers occupied 25% of high tech jobs outside the high tech sector while filling only 18% of tech jobs within the high tech sector. Black high tech workers (7.5% within high tech sector versus 5.4% outside the sector) and Hispanic high tech workers (7.7% within high tech sector versus 6.5% outside the sector) also were employed more often outside of the high tech sector. In other words, not only were women, Black and Hispanic workers underrepresented in the high tech workforce in general, as observed in both the EEOC and GAO reports, but when such workers obtain high tech jobs, they also tend to be employed in lower-paying high tech jobs outside of the high tech sector.^[49]

Source: GAO report.^[50] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

IV. The Characteristics of the High Tech Workforce

To demonstrate the potential economic implications for workers, we first assess the geographic distribution, recent growth rates, unemployment rates, and median income of the high tech workforce. The prior EEOC report briefly described “remarkable geographic dispersion” in the decades since the high tech sector was established largely in Silicon Valley (San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area) and Boston. By 2014, EEO-1 data showed that Silicon Valley and Boston had only the fourth and fifth largest local high tech sector workforces, respectively, behind the New York; Los Angeles; and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas.^[51] 

Figure 1 depicts the metropolitan areas with the ten largest high tech workforces in 2022.^[52] We also provide the number of high tech workers in 2014 and 2022 and percentage growth in Table 4. The list of the top 10 largest local high tech workforces in 2022 largely is unchanged from 2014, although by 2022 Atlanta had surpassed Boston, San Jose, and Houston as the eighth largest high tech workforce.^[53] New York; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and the San Francisco Bay Area remain at the top of the list.

Figure 1. Top Geographic Areas for High Tech Workforce Employment in the United States, 2022

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[54]

Source: Authors' calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[55]

Note: In 2014, Houston had the tenth largest high tech workforce, whereas the workforce in Atlanta was not in the top ten. By 2022, the high tech workforce in Atlanta had become the eighth largest.

Between 2014 and 2022 the high tech workforce increased by more than 3 million workers.

We observe in Table 5 that between 2014 and 2022 the high tech workforce increased by more than 3 million workers, an acceleration of average annual growth to 5.4% from the 2.4%  average annual growth rate found by the GAO report for 2005 to 2015. ^[56] This is more than twice the rate in the previous decade and several times the annual growth rate (0.8%) of the total U.S. workforce during the same period. As a result, the high tech workforce comprised 6.1% of the U.S. workforce by 2022.

Within the high tech workforce, the number of non-managerial workers grew by an average of 5.7% annually and resulted in just under 3 million additional non-managerial jobs (Table 5). Compared to the 180,000 managerial jobs created in that same period, most of the growth in the high tech workforce was in non-managerial jobs.

Source: Authors' calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[57] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a Civilian (non-military) workers who either are employed or are unemployed but looking for work, excluding persons who reside in institutional settings.

^b High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers.

^c High Tech Workforce as percentage of the Total U.S. Workforce; High Tech Workers and High Tech Managers as percentage of the High Tech Workforce. 

In 2022, unemployment among the high tech workforce was relatively low at 1.8%, and wages remained high with a median income of $97,500, which was $46,000 more than the median income for the overall U.S. workforce (Table 6). 

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[58]

^a Civilian (non-military) workers who either are employed or are unemployed but looking for work, excluding persons who reside in institutional settings.

^b High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers.

^c An unemployed worker is defined as not working but looking for work. Such workers are considered to be in the labor force.

We find that in 2022, high tech employment within the sector remained consequential for the income of high tech workers. The median income of high tech workers within the high tech sector ($104,500) was 17% higher than the median income for high tech workers when employed outside the sector ($89,500) (shown in Tables 8, 10 and 12 below). Thus, in 2022, high tech occupations continued to offer economic stability and mobility for workers who gain access to such jobs due to the increasing numbers of high tech job opportunities; low unemployment rates; and high wages, particularly for workers within the high tech sector. 

V.  Diversity and Advancement in the High Tech Workforce

In this section, we examine whether diversity in the high tech workforce has changed since the prior EEOC and GAO reports were released. (Findings from the previous reports are reviewed in Section III above.) 

A. Racial and Ethnic Composition of the High Tech Workforce

We first assess whether workers of color achieved greater representation in high tech jobs during the recent period of accelerated growth between 2014 and 2022 (growth rate reported in Table 5 above). Table 7 shows changes in the workforce by race and ethnicity during this period, including demographic distributions for high tech workers and managers. For this, we use five broad categories to allow for comparisons with prior reports and between the workforce and sector.^[59]

Hispanic workers comprised only 9.9% of high tech workforce, while making up nearly 18.7% of total U.S. workforce.

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Black workers comprised just 7.4% of high tech workers, despite making up 11.6% of the total U.S. workforce.

Overall, the high tech workforce continued to diversify in the years between 2014 and 2022. By 2022, workers of color occupied two-fifths, or 40.1%, of high tech jobs — an increase from 26% in 2005 (as reported by GAO) and 32.4% in 2014.^[60] Thus, workers of color overall made progress toward comprising a similar share of high tech jobs as workers of color in the total U.S. workforce (41.6%). However, Hispanic and Black high tech workers remained significantly underrepresented in the high tech workforce. Hispanic workers comprised only 9.9% of the high tech workforce in 2022 (compared to 5% in 2005 as reported by GAO and 6.9% in 2014), while making up nearly one-fifth (18.7%) of the total U.S. workforce. Further, Black workers comprised just 7.4% of high tech workers, nearly unchanged from 2005 (6%, as reported in the GAO report) and 2014 (6.9%), despite making up 11.6% of the total U.S. workforce.^[61]

Among high tech managers, Black, Hispanic, and Asian workers remained underrepresented in comparison to their representation in the high tech workforce overall. Black workers comprised only 5.7% of high tech managers in 2022 despite being 7.4% of the high tech workforce, and Hispanic workers made up 8.1% of high tech managers versus 9.9% of the high tech workforce. Asian workers showed the greatest differential between their proportion in the high tech workforce (18.1%) and as high tech managers (15.3%). 

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[62] The distribution percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers.

^b Race/ethnic group as a percent of each workforce category (i.e., Total U.S. Workforce, High Tech Workforce, etc.)

Figure 2 illustrates the differential growth rates by race and ethnicity in the total U.S. workforce and the high tech workforce. The number of workers of Other Races more than doubled in the total U.S. workforce (112.1% total increase; 14.0% average annual increase) and almost tripled within the high tech workforce (197.5% increase; 24.7% average annual increase). The number of Hispanic high tech workers increased at the next highest rate (104.2% increase; 13.0% average annual increase), more than double the average annual growth rate of the high tech workforce as a whole (5.4% annually). Asian and Black high tech workers both increased their numbers at an annual rate of 7.2% and thus each increased their share of the high tech workforce by less than two percentage points (to 18.1% and 7.4%, respectively). By contrast, the white worker population declined by 2.5% in the total U.S. workforce. The total number of white workers in high tech jobs increased, however, but grew at a slower rate (27.0% total increase; 3.4% average annual increase) than the high tech workforce as a whole (43.4% total; 5.4% annually).

Figure 2. Average Annual Change in Total U.S. Workforce and High Tech Workforce, by Race, 2014 – 2022

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[63] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

Asian workers showed the greatest differential between their proportion in the high tech workforce (18.1%) and as high tech managers (15.3%).

The results for white workers and workers of Other Races are consistent with the Census Bureau’s research showing that changes to the race and ethnicity questions implemented in the 2020 Decennial Census and subsequent ACS surveys resulted in more people identifying as Multi-Racial or with Some Other Race after 2020 when they likely identified as white alone prior to 2020.^[64] As a result, the increase reported above in the Other Races category, and the decrease in the white category, may reflect a change in how workers chose to identify themselves, rather than in the actual composition of the two populations. For this report, we consolidate Two or More Races and Some Other Race, which were most affected by the question changes, into the Other Races category due to small samples of workers in each category.

Both Hispanic and Black high tech workers appear to have made incremental progress in gaining access to jobs within the high tech sector, which are higher paying on average. The GAO report observed that, in 2015, 6.5% of high tech workers within the sector were Hispanic and 5.4% were Black (Table 3, above). We find that the percentage of Hispanic high tech workers within the sector increased to 9.4% in 2022, and that the percentage of Black high tech workers in the high tech sector increased to 6.4% (Table 8). Asian high tech workers were the only race or ethnic group with a greater representation of workers within the high tech sector than in high tech jobs outside the high tech sector (21.8% versus 15.4%, respectively).

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[65] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

Our findings show that while Black and Hispanic workers have made some gains in absolute numbers in the high tech workforce, significant concerns remain about the persistent underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic workers in the high tech workforce, particularly in a period when that workforce is undergoing rapid growth. Black workers, in particular, have made only marginal progress in representation in the high tech workforce in the past 20 years. Black and Hispanic high tech workers have also relatively more representation outside the sector than within the more highly paid positions in the sector. Furthermore, even when workers of color gain entry into the high tech workforce, their lack of representation as high tech managers raises concerns about the opportunities for advancement. 

B. Age Composition of the High Tech Workforce

We find that the high tech workforce is more concentrated in the 25 to 39 age group than the overall workforce (40.8% versus 33.1%). Figure 3 illustrates age distributions in 2022 of the total U.S. workforce and the high tech workforce. Table 9 provides age distributions for non-managerial and managerial high tech workers and growth rates of each age group. In 2022, the total U.S. workforce included almost twice the proportion of workers under age 25 (13.9% versus 7.1%) and over age 65 (6.4% versus 3.9%) than in the high tech workforce. 

The proportion of workers under age 40 grew from 44.1% in 2014 to 47.9% in 2022.

Because the ADEA protects workers who are 40 and older from age discrimination, we look specifically at the growth of the workforce above and below age 40. We find that the proportion of workers under age 40 in the high tech workforce grew from 44.1% in 2014 to 47.9% in 2022. This is only slightly greater than their representation in the overall workforce in 2022 (47.0%). 

Figure 3. Age Distributions in the Total U.S. and High Tech Workforce, 2022

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[66] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

The two fastest growing segments of the high tech workforce are those over age 65 and under age 25. The number of high tech workers 65 and older increased by 10.7% annually, on average, almost double the rate of the total high tech workforce (5.4% annually). This age segment is also the fastest growing segment of the total workforce, with average annual growth of 4.5% between 2014 and 2022 (compared to 0.8% average annual growth of the total U.S. workforce). In contrast, the rapid growth among the youngest workers (those under 25) in the high tech workforce is not reflected in the overall workforce. Workers under age 25 in the high tech workforce increased by 9.3% annually between 2014 and 2022 to comprise 7.1% of the high tech workforce by 2022. Workers under age 25 in the total U.S. workforce increased by only 0.4% per year on average while their proportion of the workforce in 2022 (13.9%) declined compared to 2014 (14.3%).

Source: Authors' calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[67] The distribution percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers. 

^b Age group as a percent of each workforce category (i.e., Total U.S. Workforce, High Tech Workforce, etc.)

High tech workers within the high tech sector are more concentrated in the 25 to 39 age group (43.6% in the high tech sector versus 38.9% outside the sector), while workers outside the sector are more likely to be older than 40 years of age (49.4% inside, 54.0% outside). The proportions for those over age 65 are similar for both within and outside the sector. 

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[68] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

In sum, the high tech workforce remains more highly concentrated between the ages of 25 and 39 than the overall workforce and grew much faster among workers under age 25 (9.3% average annual growth) than the overall workforce (0.4% average annual growth). These findings raise concern about the opportunities for older workers in the high tech workforce and specifically access to jobs within the high tech sector. These concerns are further bolstered by our analysis of the EEOC’s charge filing data in Section VII below. 

C. Sex Composition of the High Tech Workforce

Female workers remain at less than a quarter of the high tech workforce.

We find that the sex composition of the high tech workforce largely has not changed since 2005. The GAO report found that women made up 22% of the high tech workforce in 2005 and still comprised only 22% of the high tech workforce ten years later in 2015 (Table 2).^[69] In 2022, the proportion of female workers remained at less than a quarter (22.6%) of the high tech workforce (Table 11). This is dramatically less than the proportion of women, 47.3%, in the total U.S. workforce in 2022. Despite this, in 2022, women have slightly greater representation in high tech managerial positions (23.6%) than among high tech workers who are not managers (22.6%), although women’s representation among high tech managers actually experienced a statistically significant decrease from its level in 2014 (24.5%).

Source: Authors' calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[70] The distribution percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers. 

^b Sex as a percent of each workforce category (i.e., Total U.S. Workforce, High Tech Workforce, etc.)

We also find that female high tech workers continued to be employed more often outside of the sector (24.9%) than in the high tech sector (19.4%) in 2022 (Table 12). This difference reaffirms concerns that barriers may reduce women’s access to high tech jobs in general and to the relatively higher paying jobs within the high tech sector. 

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data.^[71] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

D. Sex Composition by Race and Ethnicity and by Age in the High Tech Workforce 

Women of color comprise only 10% of the total high tech workforce.

We next assess whether the degree of female participation in high tech occupations varies by race and ethnicity or by age. Figure 4 shows the composition by sex of the high tech workforce and of female high tech workers by race and ethnicity. White female high tech workers made up 12.3% of the total high tech workforce, which is 60% of all female high tech workers. Women of color comprise only 10% of the total high tech workforce (with Asian women making up 4.8%, Black women 2.3%, Hispanic women 2.2% and women of other races 1.2% of the high tech workforce). In addition, women of color were 40% of all female high tech workers. Appendix Table A-1 provides more detailed data.

Figure 4. Percentage of Female Workers, by Race and Ethnicity, in the High Tech Workforce, 2022. 

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[72] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

Table 13 below reiterates the distribution of high tech workers by age shown in Table 9 and, for comparison, provides the distribution of the female high tech workforce by age and percent of women for each age group. We observe that women in the high tech sector are relatively younger than men and participate in the high tech workforce relatively less often when age 40 and older. Whereas 47.9% of the total high tech workforce is under age 40, 50% of female high tech workers are under age 40. We also find that women make up a lower proportion of older workers in the high tech workforce than among those under 25. Female workers are 26.0% of high tech workers younger than 25 – almost 4 percentage points higher than women’s 22.6% representation in the high tech workforce as a whole. In contrast, women are only 21.9% of workers in the high tech workforce who were between the ages of 40 and 54, and 22.7% among those aged 55 to 64. Less than 20% of high tech workers older than age 65 are women. On top of barriers to entry into high tech occupations as illustrated by low participation, these results may suggest that women who obtain high tech jobs experience additional challenges in remaining in such jobs, especially after they turn 40.

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data.^[73] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

VI.  Diversity in the High Tech Sector

We now shift the focus from the high tech workforce to the high tech sector— those industries with relatively high concentrations of high tech workers (Table 1)—to assess the demographic diversity of high tech sector employees, whether or not in a high tech occupation. We also assess sector diversity by occupational category and company size.^[74] 

First, we observe in Table 14 that, in 2022, employees in the high tech sector were less racially and ethnically diverse than both the total U.S. workforce and the high tech workforce (i.e., 37% employees of color in the total high tech sector versus 41.6% workers of color in the total U.S. workforce and 40.1% workers of color in the high tech workforce). Black (7.6%) and Hispanic (9.5%) employees in the high tech sector are underrepresented to similar degrees as in the high tech workforce (7.4% and 9.9%, respectively), while Asian employees represent a larger share of high tech sector employees (16.9%) than of the total U.S. workforce (6.5%). High tech sector employees also are comprised of relatively fewer women (31.9%) than the total U.S. workforce (47.3% women), but more than in the high tech workforce (22.6%). Given that the sector includes both technical and non-technical occupations, this may be explained by women’s overrepresentation in non-technical jobs within the sector such as administrative and service positions, which we explore further below.

Sources: Authors' calculations using 2022 American Community Survey data and 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[75] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

A. Sex, Racial, and Ethnic Diversity by Occupation

We next turn to how racial and ethnic diversity varies across occupational categories within the high tech sector. We find striking differences in the racial/ethnic compositions of different occupations, which are shown in Figure 5 (the left-most bar replicates the percentages observed for the high tech sector in Table 14 rounded to the whole number). For example, whereas white workers make up 63% of all employees in the high tech sector as a whole, 78% of Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers (Senior Officials) and 70% of First/Mid-Level Officials & Managers (Mid-level Officials) in the sector are white.  Black and Hispanic employees make up 8% and 10%, respectively, of all high tech sector employees but a much smaller fraction of Senior Officials (3% and 4%, respectively) and Mid-Level Officials (4% and 6%, respectively) employees. In other words, there is much less racial/ethnic diversity in Senior Official and Mid-level positions than the sector as a whole. 

Operatives and Laborers and Helpers occupations, in contrast, typically require low or unskilled workers and thus are much lower paying than Senior Official, Mid-level Official, and Professional occupations. In the high tech sector, the Operatives and Laborers and Helpers occupations are comprised of only 49% and 45% white employees, respectively, and the majority are workers of color. (As noted above, the sector is comprised of 37.4% workers of color.) While Black employees are only 8% of all sector employees, they occupy 15% of Administrative, 11% of Operative, 13% of Laborer and Helper, and 20% of Service Worker positions. Hispanic employees comprise 10% of all sector employees but occupy 15% of Administrative, 19% of Operative, 28% of Laborer and Helper, and 16% of Service Worker occupations. 

Figure 5. Racial/Ethnic Composition by Occupation in the High Tech Sector, 2022

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[76] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

Similarly, Figure 6 shows the percentage of women employed in the high tech sector as a whole (31.9%) and the percentage of women employed in each occupational category. The Administrative category is the only female-dominated occupational category in the high tech sector (67% female employees). Like the high tech workforce, all other occupations in the high tech sector are male dominated, particularly Technicians (20% women) and Craft Workers (10% women) occupations. Other occupations at both ends of the occupational ladder are filled by women to similar degrees as their representation in the high tech sector overall. In comprising 31.9% of high tech sector employees, women are relatively underrepresented in making up 24% of Senior Officials and 30% of Mid-Level Officials positions. Women comprise 31% of Professionals, and 32% of Sales Workers. At the lower end of the occupational structure, 35% of Operatives, 32% of Laborers and Helpers and 38% of Services Workers are women.

Figure 6. Percentage of Women within Occupations in the High Tech Sector, 2022 

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[77] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

B. Sex, Racial, and Ethnic Diversity by Employer Size

We next examine sex and racial/ethnic diversity by employer size. Table 15 shows sex and racial/ethnic compositions of the total high tech sector (first shown in Table 14) and by employer size. We find that both the largest high tech employers with more than 10,000 employees, which often are referred to as Big Tech, and the smallest high tech companies employ relatively fewer women than the overall proportion of women in the sector—29.6% and 30.6%, respectively. Medium-size employers between 100 and 10,000 employees employ marginally higher proportions of women (ranging between 33.0% and 33.9%).

Sources: Authors' calculations using 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[78] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a Number of employees reported on the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). 

Big Tech with 29.6% women and the smallest high tech companies with 30.6% women employ relatively fewer women than the overall proportion of women in the sector 31.9%.

We also find that racial and ethnic diversity in the high tech sector varies by employer size. Big Tech appears to be the most racially and ethnically diverse. Big Tech workforces were made up of 40.3% workers of color, which exceeds the total sector (37.4%). By contrast, smaller high tech companies employ workers of color to a lesser degree. Whereas employers with between 1,000 and 10,000 employees have a similar percentage of 37.2% workers of color as the sector as a whole (37.4%), companies with fewer than 1,000 employees range between 34.1% to 36% workers of color. 

Asian employees comprise between 11.5% of all employees at the smallest high tech employers and 19.7% of total employees at Big Tech employers.^[79] On the other hand, differences by employer size for Hispanic (9.2% to 10.0%) and Black (7.1% to 9.7%) employees are smaller. 

C. Occupation and Employer Size

In the previous two sections we observed separately that race/ethnic and sex diversity varies by occupation and at employers of different sizes. We delve into this further in this section by exploring which types of occupations women and workers of color hold at Big Tech employers versus all other employers in the high tech sector. In doing so, we aim to shed light on whether employer size carries implications for women’s and workers’ of color occupational opportunities.

Table 16 shows the distributions of male and female employees across occupations for the total high tech sector and by employer size. Reflecting the sector sex compositions of occupations above, men are more likely to occupy Senior Official and Mid-Level Official positions (3.1% and 14.7% of all male employees in the sector, respectively) than women (2.0% and 13.5% in Senior and Mid-Level Official, respectively). By contrast, women are more likely than men to be employed in Other occupations (27.1% of women versus 19.1% of men).^[80]In other words, women employed in the high tech sector occupy Senior and Mid-level management positions relatively less often than men and are relatively more often employed in other occupations such as Sales, Administrative, and Service occupations. Although men predominately occupy the jobs in the Professionals category in 2022 (69% occupied by men versus 31% occupied by women, Figure 6), as they do the high tech sector generally, among workers of the same sex, men and women were employed in professional positions to a similar extent (53.5% of men in the sector are Professionals and 52.5% of women in the sector are Professionals (Table 16)).

When we break out the sector by Big Tech employers and all other employers, we observe differences that suggest relatively better occupational opportunities for women at Big Tech companies than at smaller organizations. Among Big Tech employees, 14.8% of women and 15.7% of men occupy senior and mid-level management positions, a 0.9 percentage point difference, whereas the gap is larger at smaller tech companies in which 15.8% of women and 18.9% of men are employed in such positions. Also, a higher percentage of women (61.5%) than men (59.3%) occupy Professional positions at Big Tech employers while the opposite is true at smaller employers (50.3% of men, 48.3% of women in Professional positions). At the lower end of the occupational ladder, smaller employers appear to drive women’s greater tendency to be employed in All Other occupations. In addition, 20.1% of women at Big Tech employers (compared to 18.0% of men) occupy Administrative, Laborers and Helpers, and Service jobs, whereas 30.2% of women and only 19.7% of men do at smaller employers. 

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[81] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a Number of employees reported on the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). 

^b All Other Occupations include Sales Workers, Administrative Support Workers, Craft Workers, Operatives, Laborers and Helpers, and Service Workers.

We observed in Table 15 that Big Tech employers have somewhat more diverse workforces than smaller employers in the high tech sector. This raises the question of whether more race/ethnic diversity in Big Tech translates into better occupational opportunities for employees of color. We show occupational distributions for each race/ethnic group by Big Tech and smaller tech employers in Table 17. We first observe that all race/ethnic groups, albeit to different degrees, are more likely to occupy Professional occupations at Big Tech employers and less often occupy either end of the occupational ladder, Senior Official and All Other Occupations, at Big Tech employers than at smaller employers. This is true both for white employees and employees of color in Big Tech, so the structure of occupational opportunities at Big Tech employers generally is different than at smaller high tech companies. 

On one hand, it is promising that the pattern of relatively greater occupational opportunities in Mid-Level and Professional positions at Big Tech employers and in Senior Official positions at smaller high tech employers holds for all employees of color. Black employees, for example, while still significantly under-represented in Big Tech, are more likely to occupy Mid-Level Official and Professional positions in Big Tech relative to smaller companies. Specifically, 9.2% of Black Big Tech employees are Mid-Level Officials, and 55.1% of Black Big Tech employees are Professionals. By comparison, among Black employees at smaller companies, 7.9% are in Mid-Level Official positions and 46.9% of such Black employees occupy Professional positions. Black employees also are less likely to occupy All Other Occupations at Big Tech (28% versus 32.4%), and more likely to occupy Senior Official positions in smaller companies relative to Big Tech (1.1% versus 0.6%, respectively). As we observed in Figure 5, however, Black employees’ representation in Senior Official positions is extremely small at all high tech sector firms, regardless of size (only 3% of all Senior Officials in the high tech sector are Black, while Black employees comprise 8% of all employees in the Sector). 

We see similar patterns for Hispanic employees; 53.1% of Hispanic employees at Big Tech firms are Professionals, versus 37.7% at other smaller high tech employers. In addition, among Hispanic employees at Big Tech firms, 27.2% work in All Other occupations whereas 38.2% of Hispanics at smaller high tech companies work in All Other occupations. Furthermore, as with Black employees, very small proportions of Hispanic employees occupy Senior Officials positions in all high tech sector firms, regardless of size (only 0.6% of Hispanic employees at Big Tech companies and 1.4% of Hispanic employees at smaller tech companies). In 2022, Hispanic employees made up just 4% of Senior Officials although they were 10% of the high tech sector employees (Figure 5). 

Further, occupational opportunities for employees of color at certain employers do not make up for disparities across the sector as a whole. While employees of color are more likely to achieve Senior Official positions outside of Big Tech relative to their counterparts within Big Tech, the same holds true for white employees. In other words, employees of color are much less likely to occupy Senior Official, and also less likely to obtain Mid-Level Official, occupations than white employees in the high tech sector regardless of company size. 

Source: Authors' calculations using 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Report data.^[82] The percentages have been rounded and may not add to 100.

^a Number of employees reported on the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). 

^b All Other Occupations include Sales Workers, Administrative Support Workers, Craft Workers, Operatives, Laborers and Helpers, and Service Workers.

VII. EEOC Charge Filings & Litigation in the High Tech Sector

We next assess the charges of discrimination filed with the EEOC in 2022 for differences between the high tech sector and other sectors. The distribution of charges of discrimination shows that age discrimination charges are notably more frequent in the high tech sector than in other sectors. In addition, while allegations related to equal pay and genetic information are much less common across all sectors, such charges are two and five times as likely, respectively, in the high tech sector than in others. Table 18 shows our analysis of the distribution of charges of discrimination filed in 2022 that we were able to match to a 2022 EEO-1 employer report and categorize by industry (about one third of all charges filed). ^[83] 

The four most common types of charges filed—those alleging discrimination based on retaliation, disability, race, and sex—are nearly equally as common in the high tech sector as in other sectors with the percentages of charges within about one percentage point between sectors. The greatest difference in the relative frequency of allegations was in charges alleging age discrimination (Table 18). 19.8% of allegations filed by individuals against high tech employers included age discrimination claims, whereas such allegations comprised only 14.8% of allegations in other industries, a 5 percentage point difference that is statistically significant. There is also a statistically significant difference between the frequency of allegations of equal pay violations and genetic information discrimination in the high tech sector versus in other sectors.^[84]

Sources: Internal 2022 EEOC Charge Records matched to 2022 EEO-1 Employer Information Reports.^[85]

Note: The distributions do not add to 100% since a charge may have two or more types and counted in each.

^a Only charges that were matched to a 2022 EEO-1 employer report are included, about one third of all charges filed in 2022.

^b Includes charges of type "Other", and charges that were unassigned, not labeled, or a type that is obsolete.

While the EEOC does not make public the information obtained under its investigative authority before lawsuits are filed, the distribution of the charges and examples of resolved lawsuits and public conciliations illustrate the discrimination faced by workers in the high tech sector.^[86]  Retaliation charges are the highest share of charge filings at the EEOC in the high tech sector as in other sectors of the economy. Given this, it is likely that discrimination in this sector is underreported due, at least in part, to workers’ fear of retaliation. Additionally, surveys have found workers report higher levels of experiencing discrimination than represented in the filing of formal complaints with the EEOC.^[87] Thus, we would caution against drawing conclusions about the prevalence of any given type of discrimination based on this distributional data alone. Nonetheless, the nature of the suits filed by the EEOC provide valuable information about the barriers faced by applicants and workers who enter or attempt to enter the high tech sector. 

Disability-based discrimination charges are the highest proportion of charges filed after retaliation in the high tech sector, as it is among all charges EEOC receives. In recent years, the EEOC has filed a number of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuits that offer insight into the forms of discrimination faced by workers with disabilities in the high tech sector. These suits involve employers who fail to consider or hire applicants because of disabilities, make unlawful medical inquiries, and/or refuse to provide reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities.^[88] For example, in its lawsuit against Viewpoint, a construction software developer, and its recruiter, Campuspoint Corporation, the EEOC alleged that the companies rejected an applicant because he requested an American Sign Language interpreter for an upcoming group interview and without determining what reasonable accommodations might be available if the applicant was ultimately hired. ^[89] The case resolved for $225,000 in monetary relief and injunctive relief that included both companies implementing ADA policies and providing equal employment opportunity training to all managers. In its lawsuit against Cessna Aircraft, the EEOC alleged that Cessna had a company-wide policy that failed to make individualized assessments of the abilities of conditional employees with disabilities to perform jobs, but instead Cessna rescinded its conditional job offers to these workers because if their disabilities in violation of the ADA.^[90] The parties’ settlement of the case provided monetary relief for two of the affected conditional employees as well as injunctive relief requiring the company to create a new ADA policy. 

In general, women are more likely to experience sex-based discrimination, including harassment, when working in occupations and in a sector that are dominated by men.^[91] As observed above, women occupy less than a quarter of high tech jobs (22.6%, Table 8) and make up only one third of all employees in the high tech sector (31.9%, Table 15). Two matters investigated and resolved by the EEOC help illustrate how women in the high tech sector may be subjected to egregious workplace sexual harassment. In 2021, the EEOC and Mediacom Communications Corp. resolved a sexual harassment lawsuit when MediaCom agreed to pay $175,000 to three female employees after the EEOC alleged that Mediacom failed to stop rampant sexual harassment despite female employees’ complaints.^[92] In 2022, the EEOC entered into a consent decree and $18 million settlement— one of the largest in the EEOC’s history— with video game developer Activision Blizzard, Inc. after the EEOC filed a lawsuit alleging pervasive sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation against female employees at the company.^[93] 

Other recent EEOC lawsuits illustrate how women also continue to experience barriers to entry and promotion and unequal pay in high tech occupations. For example, the EEOC entered into a consent decree in 2021 with Dell, Inc., a computer manufacturer, after the EEOC’s investigation found that the employer paid a female information technology analyst with 24 years of experience less than her male counterparts for performing similar work.^[94] The EEOC has also filed several pregnancy discrimination suits against employers in the high tech sector. In the settled lawsuit between the EEOC and DLS Engineering Associates, LLC, the employer rescinded a job offer for an engineering logistics analyst position when it found out the candidate was pregnant, explaining that they “cannot hire someone who is pregnant.”^[95] In another lawsuit, Fermi Research Alliance, Inc., a company that runs a particle physics and accelerator laboratory, agreed to pay a female engineer $100,000 after the EEOC’s investigation found that it had failed to promote her in retaliation for her filing a sex discrimination claim.^[96] These examples shed light on how women may not only experience sex-based discrimination (including sexual harassment, unequal pay, and pregnancy discrimination) in the high tech sector, but also the nature of retaliation when they make claims of sex discrimination.

The results in Table 18 show that age-related charges also are relatively more common in the high tech sector (19.8% of charges compared to 14.8% in other industries). Workers 40 and older are protected against age discrimination by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Research cited above suggests that older employees often are perceived as not innovative or able to keep up with new technologies and skills and thereby treated differently than their younger peers due to their age.^[97] Age discrimination in the high tech sector may come in many forms from refusing to hire older workers, fewer opportunities for training and advancement, or laying off older workers.^[98]Several settled lawsuits illustrate how employers unlawfully replace older workers in the high tech sector with younger workers. For instance, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against Camber Corporation, a defense contractor, alleging the company fired a software engineer in his mid-sixties after the employee requested a transfer, and subsequently replaced the employee with someone more than 20 years younger.^[99] The EEOC also filed a lawsuit against an engineering and construction company, Burrow Global Services, LLC, alleging the employer violated the ADEA when a new, younger supervisor terminated an electrical engineer, who was over age 60, because of his age.^[100] According to the EEOC’s suit, the new supervisor almost immediately began commenting about the employee’s retirement and repeatedly asked the older employee when he planned to retire. Finally, in resolving a lawsuit, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded NASA research and development center, agreed to pay $10 million to a class of workers over the age of 40 who the EEOC alleged it had systemically laid off in favor of retaining younger employees.^[101]

VIII. Conclusion 

This report assessed diversity in the high tech workforce and high tech sector. While there has been some progress, our findings reflect significant barriers to employment and advancement for some historically underrepresented groups. Most notably, female, Black, and Hispanic workers remained substantially underrepresented in the high tech workforce and sector, even during a period of rapid growth in high tech occupations. Between 2005 and 2022, there was very little change in the representation of Black workers employed as high tech workers and virtually no change at all in the representation of female workers in the high tech workforce. 

While Black and Hispanic workers had average annual growth rates higher than the overall high tech workforce, which grew at 5.4% annually on average, the growth did not result in substantial gains in representation for Black workers. Black high tech workers grew 7.2% annually on average, and yet remained underrepresented at 7.4% of the high tech workforce while comprising 11.6% of the total U.S. workforce. While Hispanic workers increased their representation from 6.9% in 2014 to 9.9% in 2022 with a growth rate nearly double that of the overall high tech workforce, they also remained underrepresented compared to their representation in the overall U.S. workforce (18.7%). 

In the high tech sector, employees were less racially and ethnically diverse than in both the overall U.S. workforce and the high tech workforce. Black (7.6% in the high tech sector) and Hispanic (9.5% in the high tech sector) employees were also substantially underrepresented in the high tech sector. Our analysis by employer size showed that Big Tech employers, those with more than 10,000 employees, were more likely than smaller employers to have more racially and ethnically diverse workforces. Still, regardless of employer size, employees of color were less likely to be employed in the highest ranking Senior Official occupations than white employees. Opportunities for employees of color at the senior level were few and far in between at Big Tech companies with only 0.6% each of Black, Hispanic and Other Races employees occupying senior level positions relative to more than 1% of each group at smaller employers. 

The representation of women in high tech occupations has not improved in almost 20 years, remaining at less than a quarter of the high tech workforce.^[102] Additionally, women remained even more underrepresented in higher-paying high tech jobs within the high tech sector, and the representation of female high tech managers had a statistically significant decline from 24.5% in 2014 to 23.6% in 2022. Such stasis for women in the high tech workforce over such a long period of time is striking in light of high female labor force participation in the total U.S. workforce (47.3% in 2022). Further, our analysis of charge discrimination filings found that equal pay allegations were more frequent in the high tech sector than other sectors. EEOC’s recent litigation also illustrates how female workers faced harassment and discrimination in some workplaces. Taken together, these results reaffirm concerns that barriers may reduce women’s access to high tech jobs, particularly in the higher paying positions in the sector, and that women may face additional barriers even if they do obtain a high tech position. 

The findings with respect to age diversity are also concerning. In general, we found that the high tech workforce is more concentrated between ages 25 and 39 relative to the total U.S. workforce (40.8% versus 33.1%). High tech workers over 40 were more frequently found in jobs outside the high tech sector than the higher paying jobs within the high tech sector. In addition, our analysis of the EEOC charge filing data found that allegations of age discrimination were significantly more frequent in the high tech sector than other sectors. 

While there has been incremental progress for some workers, especially Hispanic workers, the underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic, and women in the high tech workforce remains a persistent problem, as it was in 2016 when the EEOC released its prior report. At the time of that report, the EEOC convened a hearing in which stakeholders identified barriers to access and opportunity, as well as possible solutions including strengthening diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility efforts.^[103] In 2020, many high tech companies made significant commitments to advance racial injustice and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the wake of protests against racial violence against Black Americans.^[104] While the 2022 timeframe analyzed here may have been too soon for those efforts to be reflected in the results, there have also been reports that some efforts have been already reduced or abandoned.^[105]

The present report indicates that significant barriers remain to equal employment opportunity in the high tech workforce and sector. The magnitude of the underrepresentation, particularly for female and Black workers, along with research and the EEOC’s experience enforcing anti-discrimination laws suggest that discrimination contributes to the relatively low employment of women, Black workers, Hispanic workers, and older workers. The underrepresentation of certain workers among those who design, develop, and implement new technologies has particularly significant social and economic implications given the high tech sector’s rapid growth, the expanding importance of technology in our society, and the need to create technology to serve increasingly diverse communities in the United States and abroad.

 In coming years, it will be critically important for employers and the EEOC to better identify and take active steps to address the barriers that limit employment for women, older workers, and Black and Hispanic workers in the high tech workforce and sector. As the primary agency charged with enforcing federal equal employment opportunity laws, the EEOC will continue working to address discrimination in high tech through outreach and education and, when necessary, enforcement. 
 

Appendix

Data Sources

We rely on three data sources for this report. We use 2014 and 2022 data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to assess trends in age, sex and race/ethnic compositions and primary geographic locales of the high tech workforce and sector.^[106] We also use the 2014 and 2022 EEOC Employer Information Reports (EEO-1 data) to understand whether workforce diversity varies across high tech companies of different sizes. Our third source of data comes from the EEOC administrative records of discrimination charge filings in 2022. We further describe each data source below.

Source: Authors’ calculations using 2014 and 2022 American Community Survey data (IPUMS 2022; IPUMS 2024).^[118]

* High Tech Workers excludes High Tech Managers.