Assessing Gender Differences in Software Developers Using the Human Capital Model

Previous studies have indicated that discriminatory practices exist in the Information Technology profession. In this paper, we quantify the differences in the current hourly salaries of female software developers with their male counterparts using the human capital model based on economic theory. In addition to the gender factor, the human capital model includes other control variables that may account for the salary differences such as education, experience, and specific skills, such as object-oriented programming and SQL. Our models indicate that gender is still a statistically and practically significant factor in assessing a software developer’s salary.