Women at Intel now make the same as their male counterparts, a step in the right direction as the company completes year one of a five-year diversity plan.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

February 3, 2016

3 Min Read
Intel Closed the Gender Pay Gap in 2015

Intel achieved parity in its pay between genders in 2015, a feat that shouldn't be noteworthy except for the fact that women in the US still tend to make 78% what men make, according to the White House.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) revealed the accomplishment in its 2015 Diversity Report, updated Wednesday, covering year one of a five-year plan to improve diversity at the chip giant. At the end of the year, of its workforce of over 53,000 employees, women made up 24.8%, up 5.4% from 2014, 20% of its technical staff, a 5.8% increase, and 17.6% of its leaders, up 14.3% over last year. (See Intel Hired 43% Women, Minorities in 2015.)

The progress, representing small steps towards equality, is part of a multi-faceted effort the company is making to improve diversity and promote and empower women and underrepresented minorities in its workforce. It says it spent $52.4 million on diversity in 2015 alone.

In addition to a focus on recruiting more women -- and giving employees $4,000 bonuses for doing so -- Intel is also hoping to make it easier for women to come back to work after a break in their careers. It, along with IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), General Motors and six others, was a founding member of the STEM Re-entry Task Force in September 2015 with the Society of Women Engineers, formed to provide internships for women with technical degrees.

In India, a similar Home to Office initiative has resulted in the hiring of 12 new female employees by the end of 2015.

Intel is the Founding Member of Light Reading's Women in Comms non-profit, working to increase the number of women in the industry by providing information, networking, mentorship, access to jobs and support for women in the next-gen communications industry. Visit Women in Comms and get in touch to learn how you can get involved!

Perhaps more important than Intel's progress towards diversity, which -- it admits -- is still slow-going, is its unprecedented commitment to transparency. It's putting its numbers out for everyone to dissect, as well as making itself accountable by publicly stating its goals. It's not something you often see from companies in the Valley, unless not done willingly. (See A Vast Valley: Tech's Inexcusable Gender Gap.)

CEO Brian Krzanich has committed to achieve full representation of women and under-represented minorities in Intel's US workforce by 2020, but he also outlined goals for just the upcoming year, including achieving 45% diverse hiring in the US, 14% of which are under-represented minorities, improving retention of diverse employees, reaching full representation in non-technical jobs by the end of the year and working with more diverse suppliers and investing in diverse entrepreneurs. (See Intel Urges Women to Take Advantage of Their Seat at the Table, McKinsey: Women Less Likely to Advance at Work and Calling All Women Startups! Intel Wants to Give You Money.)

— Sarah Thomas, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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