Half of tech workers think they’re underpaid, according to the jobs website Dice’s 2021 tech salary survey - and another 20% don’t know if they are. It’s her second managerial role, but the first time she’s ever been paid at market rate - and the first time her salary outweighs her college debt. This year, Phoenix started a role as an engineering manager at Alma. Later, she learned that a male coworker with the same role and experience got that market rate. She did try to negotiate for more money, but her employer said they couldn’t afford it.

She leveled up to a senior developer in Los Angeles, making $120,000 when someone with her experience and skills in that market should’ve been making $140,000. “Is it because I’m young? Is it because I’m a woman? Is it because I’m Black? It took me six months to recover from that and then start looking for another job.” She now knows that’s considered discrimination in California.įinding out that your employer has taken advantage of you is excruciating. But looking back on the interview, “I realized the HR person kept asking me how much I was making at my last job. “I remember thinking that is a lot of money,” Phoenix told The New Stack. She was thrilled, until she found out she should have been making about $30,000 more, given her experience and the standard of living in California, where she worked.

Two years after graduating from university, Valerie Phoenix landed a developer job at an insurance company that paid her “real money” - at age 24, she was making $91,000.

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