While the headlines from today’s Gamesutra Game Industry Salary Survey are focused on the overall salary numbers, there is another segment of the survey worth noting: what it found about the continued gender earnings gap in the industry.
The survey found that “men working U.S.-based salaried jobs in the game industry made $85,074 on average in 2013, whereas women made an average of $72,882>” This means that women make 86% of what men make overall. While this is better than the U.S. average, which has remained at 77% for a decade, it still indicates that the industry has not yet reached income equality.
Broken down by category, the best numbers for women came from QA Testing, where women actually earned $1.04 for every $1.00 men earned. Of course, that number is weakened by the fact that QA Testers have, on average, the lowest salary industry-wide. Second highest was in Game Design, where women were earning $0.94 for every $1.00 men earned.
Conversely, the largest gap in pay came from the Artists and Animators category, where women earned only $0.73 for every $1.00 men earned. This is worse than the national average of $0.77 for every $1.00.
“The industry is definitely becoming more accepting of women,” said one survey comment provided by Gamesutra, “which is awesome and speaks towards a bright future of diverse and interesting games I think.” Another comment complained that there are “Still way too few women in the biz,” however.
These numbers are part of a larger national conversation about gender income inequality and the gender earnings gap that has intensified in recent years. This year’s Equal Pay Day, the day in 2014 where women’s 2013 pay came equal to men’s 2013 earnings, came on April 8th. Meanwhile President Barack Obama has been promoting equal pay as a key issue, though numbers show that even in Obama’s White House a gender earnings gap exists.
