Forget the plight of underpaid women workers in “Bharat”; when it comes to earnings, their counterparts in “India” too face similar gender-based discrimination.

A Monster Salary Index (MSI), on Tuesday, indicated there was a significant gender pay gap of 27 per cent in India where men earned a median gross hourly salary of Rs 288.68 per hour while their female colleagues had to make do with just Rs 207.85 per hour.

It also said while 75 per cent employees were satisfied with their jobs, only 55 per cent were happy with their salaries, indicating how job satisfaction is not necessarily associated with satisfaction of salary.

The latest MSI report of Monster India, a leading online career and recruitment solutions providers, covered eight different sectors: IT services; healthcare, caring services, social work; education, research; financial services, banking, insurance; transport, logistics, communication; construction and technical consultancy; manufacturing and legal and market consultancy, business activities.

An analysis of the Indian job market showed the highest gender gap of 34.9 per cent in the manufacturing sector, while the lowest of 17.7 per cent was in BFSI and transport, logistics and communications.

Some of the reasons behind this gender pay gap could be the preference for male employees over female employees, promotion of males to supervisory positions, career breaks for women due to parenthood duties and other socio-cultural factors, said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director (India/ Middle East/ South-east Asia/ Hong Kong).

“Worldwide, the lack of pay parity has taken centre stage with strong views being shared by sportspersons, political and business leaders alike. Men often receive higher salary offers than women, vying for the same title in the same organisation. Needless to say, the situation is far from desired in India, especially when the country is gearing towards inclusive development.”

The drop of six per cent in the median salary drawn by employees in the transport, logistics and communication sectors could be due to the delay in growth of the sector, which could significantly benefit from the implementation of GST. Despite education being considered a major factor in influencing salaries, it is the least paid sector in India. In terms of the salary status in manufacturing, despite the government’s focus on the sector through its ‘Make in India’ initiative, the findings suggest that in addition to the highest gender pay gap, the salaries are still very low, he added.

The MSI analysis was based on the WageIndicator dataset covering the period from January 2013 to September 2015, with a sample size of 31,193 respondents. The sample included only employees, not self-employed people.

MSI is an initiative by Monster India in collaboration with Paycheck.in (managed by WageIndicator Foundation) and IIM-Ahmedabad as a research partner. The Indian Air Force Placement Cell (IAFPC) had recently selected Monster India for collaboration to provide a platform to assist retired and shortly-retiring Air Warriors seek suitable second career opportunities in the corporate world.

Related Topics