Women Lag Behind in Hiring for High-Paying AI Jobs

Women are being left behind in the artificial intelligence hiring boom, even as AI jobs offer far higher pay than other tech roles, according to new research from LinkedIn.

In the United States, women accounted for just 26% of hires into jobs requiring AI skills, compared with 50% of hires into non-AI positions, LinkedIn found. AI job postings on the platform have doubled since 2023, and the typical AI listing advertises a salary of about $177,000, compared with roughly $80,000 for a non-AI role.

"AI is creating some of the fastest-growing, highest-paying, most consequential jobs in the global economy, but women are strikingly underrepresented in terms of who is getting hired, who benefits from the pay premium, and who is leading the development and deployment of this tech," LinkedIn spokeswoman Sarah Steinberg told CBS News.

Steinberg said the tech industry's broader gender gap is even more pronounced in AI, with the sector's growth "compounding barriers that women face."

A narrowing path upward

The share of women in AI roles shrinks further up the corporate ladder. Across 27 countries, women hold just 13% of leadership roles at AI companies, compared with 20% of leadership roles in the broader tech industry.

The trend is especially concerning because women are also more likely to hold jobs vulnerable to AI disruption, such as customer service or administrative roles. According to the Brookings Institution, 86% of the 6.1 million workers in clerical and administrative jobs considered vulnerable to AI, with limited ability to adapt their skills, are women.

"We have a world in which women are more likely to have their jobs changed or disrupted by AI, and they are also not benefiting from AI pay premiums, or moving into jobs that are created by AI," Steinberg said. "That's what keeps me up at night when it comes to women's place in the economy."

Steinberg said a shift toward skills-based hiring, rather than reliance on degrees or prior job titles, could help more women enter the AI workforce, since AI skills can be learned through online courses or hands-on use of publicly available tools without a related diploma or prior job in the field.