
The 2017 Design Salary Survey Is Officially Live - coroflot
http://www.coroflot.com/blog/61232/The-2017-Design-Salary-Survey-Is-Officially-Live
======
kyleschiller
I'm sure people are tired of hearing this, but it's equally tiring to continue
seeing it.

Accounting for non-binary people doesn't even require a huge dropdown or open
field, just add "Other" if you don't want to deal with it.

This isn't some fringe SJW cause, it's just a best practice for surveys if you
want accurate data. [0][1][2]

It's not even about people's "feelings" or being "triggered", it's just about
maintaining data integrity.

Not giving non-binary people the option to identify correctly, just leaves you
with people who don't identity as male, and who aren't treated as male, being
recorded as male. You're also making it much more likely for them to close the
survey outright.

If, for example, non-binary people are underpaid, a survey designed this way
would skew upwards, and misrepresent the average salary for all designers. It
can also mess up your analysis of gender differences entirely, which
presumably is the point of asking the question at all. If there is a gendered
pay gap for designers, and non-binary people are sorted at random into male
and female, any gap that does exist will be minimized.

[0]
[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Survey_best_practices#Sex.2F...](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Survey_best_practices#Sex.2FGender_identity)
[1] [https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-behind-
beha...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-behind-
behavior/201609/how-should-market-researchers-ask-about-gender-in-surveys) [2]
[http://www.hrc.org/resources/collecting-transgender-
inclusiv...](http://www.hrc.org/resources/collecting-transgender-inclusive-
gender-data-in-workplace-and-other-surveys)

~~~
paulddraper
Perhaps they are asking sex (whether you have a Y chromosome) and not sexual
orientation or identification.

Sometimes you want someone's weight, not what weight they identify as.

~~~
brownbat
Even setting aside Klinefelter's, they did say "Gender" on the survey.

~~~
paulddraper
I don't see what Klinefelter's syndrome has to do with the presence or absence
of a Y chromosome.

~~~
brownbat
You're right, de la Chapelle is the more relevant condition in this
discussion.

In general, though, chromosomal abnormalities make lines based on the presence
or absence of particular chromosomes seem arbitrary.

I get that you're trying to simplify this by drawing a bright line. I'm
sympathetic to that urge. Quick and easy sorting systems are often the most
useful approach, even if there are a few false sorts on the margins.

But the goal is not always to get as bright a line as possible. Sometimes
there are other considerations that are more important, like as GP noted,
trying not to bias survey participation.

EDIT: Tone.

