Men Earn an Average of 10% More than Women in Climate-Related Work

Women+ in Climate Tech, a global organization dedicated to building diversity in climate innovation, released today the results of an analysis of the Environmental Jobs Salary Transparency database, to support professionals moving into climate at a time of explosive growth in the field.

Climate Tech funding represented more than a quarter of every venture dollar invested in 2022, according to PwC's State of Climate Tech 2022 report. Concurrently, layoffs from other IT sectors are driving migration to climate work.

The Environmental Jobs Transparency Survey is an anonymous, open-source multi-year survey founded by Yale School of the Environment graduates. With over 500 responses, it can be mined for trends, although more data is needed. Women+ in Climate Tech's analysis of base pay from the data, reveals:

• Across all roles, men make an average of 10% more than women.
• Graduate degree holders make 23% more than non-graduate degrees. Graduate degrees also reduce the gender pay gap (16% for non-graduate degrees, 6% for graduate degrees).
• The gender gap varies by industry. For example, among those without graduate degrees:
  • In consulting men earn 26% more.
  • In government, men earn 20% more.
  • In non-profits, men earn 12% more.

"The emerging field of climate tech is almost unimaginably innovative?wave energy, meatless burgers, capturing carbon, harvesting metals from plants?climate tech is reinventing products and services to protect our planet instead of exploiting it," said Helen Whiteley, Executive Director of Women+ in Climate Tech.

"But more than products and services, let's use the opportunity to reinvent business as a whole, upending dated practices that no longer serve and lead to the degradation of people and planet. Longstanding pay inequity is just one example, and unlike some problems, this one is not that hard to solve," continued Whiteley.

"Further, research from Project Drawdown and many others reveals that gender equity improves both business and climate outcomes," said Whiteley. "If we could embed it into every investor's strategy, every climate tech solution, imagine the distributed impact. This is what Women+ in Climate Tech is working to do, and pay equity is a very good place to start."

To augment current data, Women+ in Climate Tech is seeking volunteers to take a short, 5-minute Qualtrics survey seeking salary data for 2022. Results will be published in the runup to Equal Pay Day (March 15), and will provide data to support salary negotiations, pay parity, and more. All members of the ESG, sustainability, and climate communities are invited to participate.

About Women+ in Climate Tech

Founded in January 2021, Women+ in Climate Tech provides networking and mentorship, and spearheads groundbreaking research. To learn more, visit http://womeninclimatetech.org.

About The Environmental Jobs Transparency Survey

Including salary and benefits data from sustainability professionals in an array of companies, the database and questions were inspired by the Women in Technology Transparency movement.