Salary Survey Extra is a series of dispatches that give added insight into the findings of both our annual Salary Survey and our smaller Salary Survey PLUS polls. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

In mid-December of last year, spurred by the release of the British Computer Society's Women in IT Scorecard, we checked our most recent salary survey findings to determine whether women, generally speaking, earn less than men. The survey of record at that moment was the Salary Survey PLUS conducted in late summer with a focus on networking certifications.

The networking Salary Survey revealed that, yes, in that particular domain of the wider IT realm, women on average earn less than men. We made a mental note to return to the topic after the annual Salary Survey finally showed up for further review, following the publication of initial results in our Winter Edition. Now, here we are.

As with the certifications that we track in our survey findings, we've put the disproportionately large contingent of U.S. survey respondents in one group, and everyone else in a second group. Among U.S. survey respondents, 87.5 percent are men, and 12.5 percent are women. Among non-U.S. respondents, 91.3 percent are men, and 8.7 percent are women.

In both groups, there is a notable gap in average annual salary. No matter where in the world you look for work, it would seem, women tend to get smaller paychecks than men. And if you look outside the United States, the likelihood is that women will tend to get much smaller paychecks than men.

Average annual salary for U.S. males in 2016 was $109,440, compared to $104,220 for women. So male certified IT professionals, on average, made $5,220 more last year than their female counterparts. The gap among non-U.S. respondents is even more pronounced: Male IT professionals outside the United States averaged $60,600 in 2016, while female IT professionals took home just $42,260.

Consider this an introductory reference point. There are many other ways to look at the salary gap between men and women, and we hope to investigate more of them as we go further down the road of additional Salary Survey reportage.

#ForSale It hasn't happened yet. But there have been a few recent indications that it might not be an entirely dead issue. We're referring to one of the items from our bank of Not-So-Serious survey questions, the once-and-perhaps-future purchase of Twitter by The Walt Disney Co.

When we were preparing to launch the survey last year, news had just barely broken that Twitter might be for sale, and The Walt Disney Co. might be thinking about buying it. Disney and other suitors subsequently backed off over concerns about Twitter's long-term financial viability, though a Nasdaq report from Dec. 8 said that prospects for a sale could resurface.

What do certified IT professionals make of all this? We're glad you asked. Or at least glad that we asked, specifically about what would become of the world's most popular micro-blogging platform if it were absorbed into Uncle Walt's entertainment empire. There's not as dramatic a consensus as you might suppose:

It will literally become the Mickey Mouse operation it has always figuratively been. #SickBurn — 29.6 percent
Another innovative idea will strangle and die in the crushing grasp of corporate capitalism. #DarkDay — 24.9 percent
Twitter stock will finally be worth something. #MidasTouch — 22.5 percent
Maybe we will finally get an edit function and some extra characters. #ChangeIsGood — 14.7 percent
At least the hellish e-mail-only support function will have funny animations and voices. #SupportTicket — 8.3 percent

Original question: If The Walt Disney Co. actually buys Twitter, then ...