Dive Brief:

• While leveling the playing field between men and women who do the same or similar jobs within the technology sector certainly is a major step forward, it's still not addressing the critical issue of women in tech moving up the company ranks, according to the Washington Post.

• Both Facebook and Microsoft announced they had reached gender pay equality on Equal Pay Day yesterday. Yet both companies have dramatically fewer women in leadership roles than men, as the Post reports that women are 23% of Facebook's senior leadership and at Microsoft, women hold just 17.3% of leadership roles (both numbers came from the respective company's diversity reports).

• Bottom line, the Post reports that while men and women now earn roughly the same amount in the same jobs, it's clear that men are more likely to enjoy higher-paying roles within the tech industry.

Dive Insight:

According to the Post, tech career site Dice reported that men were much more likely to hold better paying tech job titles than women in tech. The gap is fairly dramatic, as average salaries for the top 10 tech positions held by men in 2014 ranged from $92,245-$127,750, while the top ten roles held by women had average pay of $43,068-$98,328. Clearly, those numbers indicate that women are working at lower level jobs in the tech industry across the board.

Lisa Maatz, vice president of government relations at the American Association of University Women, commented that the gender equity pay situation is what it is, but there remains much room for improvement.

"It's accurate for what it claims to be – a lack of a pay gap when looking at the same jobs – but it doesn't get at the broader issue of women being underrepresented in these fields and leadership positions that are so crucial for setting the tone for the whole company," she told the Post.