Indian women earn 25% less than men
MUMBAI: Women in India earn 25% less than men, proving that gender continues to be a significant parameter in determining salaries in the country, according to the Monster Salary Index (MSI) on gender for 2016.
While men earned a median gross hourly salary of ₹345.8, women earned ₹259.8 in 2016. The gap has narrowed by two percentage points from 27.2% in 2015 and is closer to the 24.1% in 2014. About 68.5% women at Indian workplaces also feel that gender parity is still a concern and management needs to “walk the talk”.
“The issue of gender pay gap arises for complex reasons in India, and some reasons make it unique to the country, given its deep-rooted philosophies and industrial employment practices. There need to be policy changes to combat gender-based stereotypes in employment and promote equal pay between men and women at the workplace, especially at junior to mid management levels,” says Vishalli Dongrie, head, people and change practice, KPMG India.
A sectoral analysis shows that the largest gender pay gap in 2016 was found in the transport, logistics and communication sector (42.4%). The lowest (14.7%) was recorded in education and research, where women earned 3.4% more than men. The gender pay gap at supervisory level dropped from 2015 to 2016 by 8.1 percentage points (from 28.1% to 20%). Contrary to this, the gap at the non-supervisory level has grown by 5.0 percentage points between 2015 and 2016.
The average gender pay gap in the manufacturing sector stood at 29.9%. This is an improvement of 5 percentage points from 2015. This was followed by a 25.8% pay gap in the IT sector.
The gender pay gap in the banking, financial services and insurance sector was at 21.5%, which is still below the general gender pay gap in India (25%).
The information and communication technology services had the widest gender pay gap of 38.2% and it was found that women earn ₹142.5 less per hour than men.
On average, a 22.6% gender gap exists in the healthcare, caring services and the social work sector.
The analysis presented by MSI covers a period of three years, from January 2014 to December 2016.