Extent of Gender Wage Gap In India

By: Professor Kavita Chakravarty1

And

Tanya Gandhi2

E-mail: Kavita_bhrigu@rediffmail.com

Tanya.gandhi123@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Gender wage gap persist in the world for a very long time. Economic growth increases
gender wage gap instead of reducing it. The developed economies of the world are also
affected by this phenomenon, while the developing ones are the worst hit. Gender pay gap
in labour markets lead to market inefficiencies and also market failures. Gender wage gap
in India vary largely across rural and urban parts of the country and across industries. The
main reason behind this gap is the skewed sex ratio and female labour force participation
rate across the organised and unorganised sectors of the economy. The social norms and
stereotypical perceptions about women’s work also lead to segregated choices of
employment by females in India. All these factors lead to scarce employment opportunities
and wage discrimination against women in India. This paper attempts to measure the
extent of gender wage gap across rural and urban areas in several industries and the main
causes behind this gap to persist.

Keywords: Gender, employment, wage gap, rural-urban, etc.

1
Professor in Economics, Department of Economics, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana
(India). 124001
2
Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia University (Central University), New
Delhi, (India), 110025

1
Introduction
Research across the globe provides evidence for discrimination against women of different
kinds. One of the major economic discrimination against women exists in the labour
market. Women in different parts of the world are denied access to equal opportunities in
employment as men. Not only this, but they are paid differently than men for the same
kind of work for the same number of hours. This is popularly known as Gender Wage Gap
globally. This discrimination in the labour market is not new and has been highlighted by
various economists from time to time. Now the existence of this wage gap on gender basis
raises some important questions regarding the causes of this gap. If this gap exists only
because of the natural differences in physical productive capacities of men and women
then it is economically justified. But, if this gap exists due to social stereotypes or
prejudices against women then this leads to inefficiencies in labour markets along with
violation of human rights of women.

The Gender Wage Gap is identified by The International Labour Organization (ILO) in
various parts of the world: “Throughout most regions and many occupations, women are
paid less money than men for the same job. In a majority of countries, women's wages
represent between 70 and 90 per cent of men's wages, with even lower ratios in some
Asian and Latin American countries.” (ILO, 2009)

Review of Literature
There exists a large pool of research confirming the persistence of gender wage/pay gap in
India and abroad. Various economists used different methodologies to highlight this
phenomenon. Most of the studies are based on Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) Decomposition
technique to differentiate between explained and unexplained variation in gender wage/pay
gaps. Others have followed the method propounded by Brown et al. (1980) to differentiate
between the two main components of discrimination in labour markets, namely, unequal
access to occupations and unequal pay within occupations.

By using survey data collected from East Godavari district of southern state of Andhra
Pradesh, Tilak (1980) examined distinguished returns to education in India between male
and female workers. The results of the study provide evidence for lower gender wage gaps
faced by women belonging to higher education groups.

Kingdon and Unni (2001) examined wage differential across genders in Indian labour
market in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh by employment
unemployment NSSO survey data for the time period ranging from 1987 to 1988. The
authors observed high wage discrimination against women workers in Indian labour
market and insignificant role of education in combating this discrimination.

Bhaumik and Chakrabarty (2008) examined the differences in gender wage gap across two
rounds of NSSO employment unemployment survey conducted in 1987 and 1999. The
study reveals that gender wage gap reduced significantly between the two time periods
owing to the rising returns to the experience of female workers in labour market in India.

2
Goel (2009) analysed the NSSO sample data of the period ranging from 1983 to 2005 to
find differences in gender wage gap in India before and after the reform period. The results
of the study highlighted the fact that despite rapid economic growth in the economy in the
post reform phase, the wage inequality is also rising rapidly. The study also reveals that
wage inequality is in favour of highly educated and experienced workers getting high
relative wages despite increasing supply of such workers in the labour market.

By using the micro level data of employment-unemployment survey of NSSO 66th round
for 2009-10, Khanna (2012) examined the linkage between different wage levels and
gender wage gap in India. The results of the above study show that higher male-female
wage gap is found at the lower end of the wage distribution.

Boserup’s (1970) proposition stating that female wage rates are depressed in developing
countries owing to their greater supply in the labour market eventually leading to rise in
gender wage gaps was formally tested by Mahajan and Ramaswamy (2012). This study
examined the influence of cultural restrictions on changes in female labour supply and
influence of non-farm employment opportunities on male labour supply in agriculture
sector. The results of the study explained 55% of gender wage differences among the
northern and southern states of India and the rest 45% variations were unexplained.

Objectives of the Study

1. This study attempts to highlight the differentials in workforce participation and

labour force participation rates across genders.

2. This study tries to examine the extent of gender wage gap in India across various
education groups, area of residence, type of work, industry of employment, etc.

3. This study also tries to examine the difference in gender wage gap with respect of
age, level of skill, marital status, type of employment, years of experience and
designation of female employees in formal organisations.

4. The last and final objective of this study is to find the causes behind gender wage
gap in India.

3
Analysis of Data
India’s sex-ratio has been continuously very low since 1901. The data suggests that the sex
ratio for urban areas is even worse than that of rural areas. The sex ratio for urban areas is
steadily increasing since 1961, whereas, the sex ratio for rural areas as well as total sex
ratio are constantly declining with a marginal increase witnessed in last two census. All the
three sex ratios appear to be converging in the last census but, urban sex ratio is the lowest
among the three. Despite, this increase in overall sex ratio of the country, it is still far from
being close to 1000. Skewed sex ratio in India is one of the fundamental reasons for
unequal participation of women in workforce and labour force, thereby leading to Gender
wage/pay gaps. (Refer to Table 1 in Appendix)

Figure 1: Rural-Urban Distribution of Sex Ratio in

1000
India
980
Females Per 1000 Males

960
940
920
900 Rural Sex Ratio
880 Urban Sex Ratio
860
Total Sex Ratio
840
820

Year

Due to marginal increase in sex ratio in India for rural & urban areas and overall sex ratio
in the last four decades, the changes in female workforce participation gap in last two
decades are not visible. In fact, female workforce participation has increased in rural areas
and it has remained more or less constant for urban areas. But, the female workforce
participation gap is higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas for all the years since
1993. This demonstrates lesser participation of women in workforce in urban areas than in
rural areas of India. (Refer to Table 2 in Appendix)

Representation of women in labour force provides a better picture of participation of

women in economic activity than their representation in work force. The figures for
Labour Force Participation Rates of women for last two census (2001 and 2011) depict
decrease in labour force participation of women in rural areas for all the age groups and
the overall LFPR for rural areas (from 24.6% to 18.1%). The major decline in LFPR of
women for rural areas is witnessed for younger cohorts of age group ranging from 15-44
years. However, LFPR of women for urban areas has witnessed slight increase in almost
all age groups except one, i.e. 45-59 years. But, overall LFPR of women is increasing in

4
urban areas of India during the last decade although by a very small magnitude of 1.3%. on
the contrary, the LFPR for men in India has witnessed an increase in both rural and urban
areas. (Refer to Table 3 in Appendix)

Research suggests that greater discrimination against women persists in unorganized sector
of labour markets. But due to lack of availability of data, analysis of differences in gender
wage/ pay gaps in organised and unorganised sectors of labour market becomes difficult. It
is believed that greater participation of women in organised sector will eventually lead to
reduction in gender discrimination in terms of wage/pay gaps as discrimination in this
sector could be efficiently dealt with certain policy measures. The following figure
presents the percentage share of women in public and private organised sector of Indian
economy. The trends in participation rate of women in public and private organised sector
of Indian labour market reveals increasing share of women in organised labour market of
India. However, there is a huge gap persisting in all the years of analysis between share of
women in public and private organised sector. Women have better representation in private
organised sector as compared to public organised sector in India and the gap between the
two is not appearing to narrow down over the years. This suggests that the employment
opportunities for women in organised sector are greater in private enterprises than public
units. (Refer to Table 4 in Appendix)

Figure 2: Women Employment in Organized

30
Sector
% of Women in
25 Private Sector
% Share of Women

20
% of Women in
15 Public Sector

10
% of Women in
5 Total Organised
Sector
0

Year

For deeper insights into the participation of women in organised public and private sector
in India, it becomes necessary to highlight the industries with more and less concentration
of women across public and private organised sectors. The data for the last three census
(1991, 2001 and 2011) in India helps us to draw a comparative picture of changes in
5
women employment in several industries in public and private organised sectors over last
two decades. The data illustrates that the industries with high concentration of women in
organised public sector are (i) Community, Social and Personal services; (ii) Financing,
Insurance, Real estate and Business Services; and (iii) Transport, Storage &
Communications. Similarly, the industries with high concentration of women in organised
private sector are (i) Manufacturing; (ii) Agricultural, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting; and
(iii) Community, Social and Personal services. Other industries like (i) Mining and
Quarrying; (ii) Electricity, Gas and Water; (iii) Construction; and (iv) Wholesale and
Retail trade and Restaurants and Hotels are the industries of low concentration of women
in both public and private organised sectors in India. (Refer to Table 5 in Appendix)

The figures in the table 5 show increased participation of women in (i) Community, Social
and Personal services; and (ii) Financing, Insurance, Real estate and Business Services in
both public and private organised sectors over the last two decades. The manufacturing
industry under private organised sector also depicts tremendous increase in participation of
women as against decline in the same industry under public organised sector. The share of
women in employment in Agricultural, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting industry has not
changed much during the last two decades in both private and public organised sector. The
remaining industries like (i) Construction; (ii) Wholesale and Retail trade and Restaurants
and Hotels; and (iii) Transport, Storage & Communications have depicted minor increase
in share of women in total employment in both public and private organised sectors.

Organised sector depicts a very small proportion of total workers in a developing economy
like India. Most of the developing economies are dominated by small scale unorganised
sectors. Therefore, analysis of women employment would remain largely incomplete
without the analysis of unorganised female labour employment. The data from the recent
census shows that under the purview of unorganised sector majority of women (48.48%)
work as agricultural labourers in rural India followed by the occupation of cultivators
(28.83%). However, in the urban areas, the only sector with largest concentration of
women (79.11%) is “other category”. To have a combined picture of both rural and urban
areas, the category with dominant presence of women is Agricultural labourers (41.09%),
followed by the categories of “other workers” (29.18%) and cultivators (24.01%). In
absolute numbers, the majority of unorganised female labour is provided in rural areas
(121.8 millions) as against urban areas (28.04 millions) which includes both main and
marginal workers. (Refer to Table 6 in Appendix)

Another vital issue with female labour force participation in developing countries like
India is the irregular nature of their employment. It is usually observed that unlike men,
females are provided employment on hiring basis as per requirement in industries, instead
of recruiting them as regular employees/workers. There might be two reasons for this.
Firstly, female employees/workers are perceived as less efficient than their male
counterparts, so their proportion in regular employees is always less than males and they
are hired whenever there is urgent requirement of labour. Secondly, the stereotypical social
norms grant women the primary responsibility of household work and child care and

6
elderly care due to which they themselves prefer the irregular hire basis employment
instead of regular employment.

The data from the census of India provides percentage share of women as employees and
hired workers in several industries in rural and urban areas. The data narrates that all the
industries in rural and urban areas have same or more proportion of female workers as
hired workers as compared to regular employees. This illustrates that almost half or more
than half women working in these industries in India (irrespective of rural or urban areas)
are working as hired workers instead of regular employees. Such kind of contractual
labour is always devoid of any social security benefits provided by the employers or the
government of any country. This is a violation of women’s labour rights. Apart from that,
the industries with high concentration of women workers (regular/hired) in rural areas are
(i) Manufacturing; (ii) Public administration, Defence, social security, community and
social personal services; (iii) all non-agricultural activities; (iv) wholesale trade. Similarly,
for urban areas, the industries with high concentration of women workers (regular/hired)
are (i) Public administration, Defence, social security, community and social personal
services; (ii) Unspecified activities; and (iii) Communication. This data again depicts the
occupational segregation of women from industries like (i) Electricity, Gas and Water; and
(ii) Transparent, Storage & Ware-housing. (Refer to Table 7 in Appendix)

According to the census data, the distribution of main workers (excluding marginal
workers) by sex in industrial categories illustrate that highest share of total female
employment is in Manufacturing and repairs industry (36.1%), followed by Public
administration & Defence; Education; Health; Social security; Community and Social
personal services; Pvt. Households; etc (31.1%) and Agricultural, Forestry, Fishing and
Hunting (14.5%). These are the industries with highest concentration of women, even
though, the percentage share of females in these industries is not more than 36.7% which is
highest share of female workers in Agricultural, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting industry.
This portrays skewed participation rate of women in industries against men. (Refer to
Table 8 in Appendix)

Figure 3: Percentage Share of Different Industries in

Female Employment
Public Administration & Defence; Education; Health;… 31.1
Financial Intermediation; Real Estate, Renting and… 3
Transport, Storage and Communications 1.5
Hotels and Restaurants 0.9
Wholesale and Retail Trade 7.4
Construction 4.3
Electricity, Gas and Water Supply 0.3
Manufacturing and Repairs 36.1
Mining and Quarrying 1.1
Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry; Fishing 7 14.5
Out of all forms of regular employment, the jobs with highest security provided to the
female employees are jobs in Central Government. The representation of women in central
government jobs is necessary for the demonstration effect in other industries of public
sector and private sector. The data from Census of Central Government employees provide
share of female employees in total central government employees for the years ranging
from 1971 to 2009. The data depicts that percentage share of female employees in central
government jobs was marginal in 1971 (2.51%). This share has although increased steadily
to 10.04 % in 2009 with some fluctuations in the years 2005 and 2007. Despite rising
constantly over the years, this share is still very low. The representation of women in
central government jobs is just close to 10% which shows discrimination against women in
these jobs and insignificant representation of women in administrative mechanism of our
country. (Refer to Table 9 in Appendix)

Figure 4: % Share of Female Employees in

Central Government
12
10.28 10.0910.04
9.68
10 8.61
8.01 8.3
7.51 7.58 7.43 7.53
8 6.46 6.6
6
3.53 3.64 3.8 3.86 3.93
4 2.51 2.83
2
0
0

Apart from relatively scarce employment opportunities, occupational segregation, irregular

nature of employment and insignificant representation of women workers in organised
sector, the worst form of exploitation or discrimination against women in labour markets is
the gender wage/pay gap. As discussed in the previous sections, this refers to unequal pay
for same kind of work performed by male and female workers/employees.

Gender wage/pay gap in labour markets could be attributed to several factors often referred
to as “explained” and “unexplained” variations in wage/pay of male and female
workers/employees. Explained variations refers to the influence of those variables which
highlight the differences in productiveness of male and female workers/employees like
difference in their educational attainments, skills required to perform the specific job or
physical strength required, etc. Unexplained variations refer to all those factors which lead
to gender wage/pay gap only on the basis of social perceptions of differences in gender

8
abilities. In this section, gender wage/pay gap shall be discussed with reference to such
explained and unexplained variations.

Although, gender wage/pay gap is often observable in almost all the industries and sectors
of developing countries (also developed countries), it is expected to vary across different
levels of educational attainment of female workers/employees and also across areas of
residence, i.e. urban or rural. The micro level data from employment unemployment
survey of Indian labour market conducted by NSSO provides average wage/salary of
regular wage/salaried employees of working age group (15-59 years) on the basis of
gender, educational attainment and area of residence. On the basis of this data, the gender
wage/pay gap between the average wage/salaries of male and female workers/employees
has been calculated for various levels of educational attainment and area of residence of
workers/employees. The formula used here for calculating the gender wage/pay gap is the
“Female average wage/salary as a percentage of male average wage/salary received per
day”. The results of the calculations depict that largest gaps in wage/salary exist in (i)
Private Households with employed persons in both rural and urban areas where females
get nearly 40% of the wage/salary given to that of males. The manufacturing sector with
codes (23-37) illustrate huge gap in rural areas whereas much lesser gap in urban areas.
This is the sector high concentration of women workers/employees. The only sector
providing greater wage/salary to female workers/employees as compared to men is
Transport and Storage industry. Other than this, sectors like Construction; Electricity, Gas
and water; and Trade depict relatively lower wage/salary gap for both rural and urban
areas. Coincidentally, these are the sectors with low concentration of women
workers/employees. This could be said that the industries with high concentration of
women also depict high gender wage/pay gap and vice versa. (Refer to Table 10 in
Appendix)

Regarding the linkage between gender wage/pay gap and the educational attainment of
worker/employee, it is observed in the calculations that for all the levels of educational
attainment, the gap is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas. Other than this,
there seems to be no fixed pattern of linkage between gender wage/pay gap and the
educational attainment of worker/employee in any of the industries. More sophisticated
tools of analysis could be applied here for examining this hidden linkage. (Refer to Table
10 in Appendix)

The similar analysis could be done for quantifying the gender wage gap for casual
labourers in different industries. The micro level data from employment unemployment
survey of Indian labour market conducted by NSSO for average wage earning received per
day by casual workers on the basis of area of residence for various industries is used to
make calculations for gender wage gap by the above mentioned formula. The results of the
calculations depict that largest gaps in wage earnings exist in services sector with codes
(65-74) which is positive in case of rural areas and negative in case of urban areas. Apart
from this, services sector with codes (75-93) also depict huge wage gap in both rural and
urban areas. The wage gap for manufacturing sector is high in case of urban area relative
to rural area. Again, the sectors with low concentration of women like Mining and

9
Quarrying ; and Electricity, Gas and Water; Construction and Trade depict relatively low
wage gap in both rural and urban areas. (Refer to Table 11 in Appendix)

Figure 5: Female Average Wage earning as a % of Male

Average recieved per day by Casual Labourers in various
Industries
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20 Rural
0
Urban

The following section discusses various aspects of Gender Pay Gap in India on the basis of
data collected by Paycheck India which is an Indian initiative of an international
organisation known as WageIndicator which collects and publishes data regarding wages
and labour law in nearly 70 countries of the world. Paycheck India is an initiative of
WageIndicator in collaboration with Indian Institute of management, Ahmedabad. This
data has been published in Paycheck India report in 2013 as an outcome of voluntary
survey conducted during 2006 to 2013 on 21,552 respondents through their website
Paycheck.in.

The data regarding year-wise Gender pay gap in India is based on percentage difference
between median salary of male and female employees in formal sector of India. This data
illustrates that gender pay gap in India is constantly reducing since 2007 with a slight
fluctuation in the year 2011. The data also reveals that there is a reduction in gender pay
gap in India of about 20 % during the period of seven years of analysis. But, gender pay
gap of about 24.81% still persisted after the end of year 2013 which is quite huge gap.
(Refer to Table 12 in Appendix)

10
 Figure 6: Year wise Gender pay Gap in India
50 44.8
% Difference in median salary of males

42.53
45
40 35.29
32.97
35
28.61
30
and females

24.81
23.08
25
20
15
10
5
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Year

Figure 7: Gender Pay gap Across Indian States

11
The Gender Pay Gap in India across different states classified zone-wise present a sub-
national picture of Gender Pay Gap in India. This data reveals that across all the six zones
in India, West zone has the highest average Gender Pay Gap. Out of which, Rajasthan has
highest gender pay gap in the zone. The other zones like East and North-East also depict
very high Gender pay gap, i.e. 45.67% and 42.33%, respectively. South and Central zones
have average 35% of gender pay gap and the zone with the least average gender pay gap is
North with 30.5% gender pay gap. Though, these figures could not be used to derive
robust conclusions because of unavailability of data of most of the states of North and
North-east zone. As per the available data, the sates with minimum gender pay gap are
Tamil Nadu (25%), Chhattisgarh (23%), Sikkim (23%), and New Delhi (20%). (Refer to
Table 13 in Appendix)

The data pertaining to gender pay gap across annual salary groups reveal the linkage
between range of annual salary and degree of gender pay gap. This data shows that women
get higher salaries than men for very low range of annual salaries, i.e. below 1lakh. This
shows that female labour is preferred for low paying jobs. The annual salary range with the
highest frequency is the range of salary 1lakh to 10lakhs annually. This range shows the
highest gender pay gap of 21.25%. The salary range between 11 to 20lakhs annually shows
zero gender wage gap. Above this range of salary, the frequency of female employees is
very low, i.e. less than 100 for each range and also the gender wage gap lies between
0.79% to 2.69%. This suggests that women are not preferred for very high paying jobs and
even if they are hired then they are hired at lower salaries than male employees. (Refer to
Table 14 in Appendix)

Gender pay gap might have some association with the age group of the employee. The data
collected by Paycheck India shows a positive relation between gender wage gap and age
group of the employee. It shows that gender pay gap is relatively lower in low age groups
like those belonging to the age 30 years or below. It shows that as age of an employee
increases the gender pay gap also increases with the highest pay gap existing in the age
group of 50 years or above. It might occur because of the notion of reduced ability and
productivity of women as compared to men in the later stages of life. (Refer to Table 15
in Appendix)

12
 Figure 8: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Age of an Employee

It is expected that people with same number of years of work experience in a specific job
or industry must have gained same level of skills and expertise in performing that job. It
must also ensure them same of level of salaries also. The data by paycheck India however,
shows a mixed trend. It shows that women belonging to 0-15 years of work experience in a
specific job face 35% of gender wage gap. As per the data, this figure actually reduces to
25.93% when they have work experience ranging from 16 to 30 years. Whereas, it shoots
to 75.42% as they gain work experience of more than 31 years. This table broadly suggests
that instead of decreasing, the gender wage gap actually widens with rise in work
experience of male and female employees. (Refer to Table 16 in Appendix)

13
 Figure 9: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Years of Experience

Not only the years of work experience or the level of skills attained by the individual
employees affect the gender pay gap against women, but their designation/position in
occupational hierarchy also influence the gender pay gap at various levels in an
organisation. The survey results suggest that highest discrimination in pays offered to
female employees exists at the highest levels of the organisations, i.e. at the level of Heads
(42.13%). The team leader and the supervisor in an organisation also face 18.76% and
19.26% of gender pay gap, respectively. Followed by these designations, the female
employees at lower designations like senior, trainer, junior, assistant and trainee face
declining level of gender pay gap at each subsequent lower level of occupational hierarchy
in an organisation. (Refer to Table 17 in Appendix)

Figure 10 : Gender Pay Gap with respect to

Designation in Occupational Hierarchy
50
42.13
40

30 23.13
19.26 18.76 20.05
17.66
20
11.76
9.11
10

0
Head Supervisor Team Senior Trainer Junior Assistant Trainee
Leader

14
The types of employment in which female employees are engaged also determine the
gender pay gap faced by them. Along with having job security and other social security
benefits provided by the employer, full time employees face lesser extent of gender pay
gap (34.47%) as compared to part time employees (42.27%). (Refer to Table 18 in
Appendix)

Figure 11 : Gender Pay Gap with

respect to Type of Employment

34.47 42.27

50

40

30

20

10

0
Full Time Part Time

The paycheck India data pertaining to gender pay gap across different levels of skills of
employees reveal that gender pay gap increases with increase in level of skills which
means that highly skilled females face highest gender pay gap, i.e. 39.59%. The female
employees who are skilled face 31.17% of gender pay gap. The data also shows that semi-
skilled female employees are paid higher than their male counterparts. Apart from this,
female employees who fall under the category of unskilled employees face 18.84% of
gender pay gap. (Refer to Table 19 in Appendix)

Marital status of women is instrumental in her recruitment for a specific job which requires
more time and flexible working hours. It sometimes poses as an hindrance in promotions
in jobs also because promotions imply greater work load and larger work responsibilities.
Therefore, marital status of a woman must be associated with the gender pay gap that she
faces. As per the data, the least gender pay gap exists for the category of women who are
never married (26.53%). This might be because of lesser responsibilities of family in terms
of children and spouse and sometimes in-laws also. The table shows that the highest
gender pay gap exists for the category of married women (35%) owing to their family
responsibilities which might not allow such women to concentrate on their jobs and make
them less productive in perception. The category of divorced women face gender pay gap
higher than unmarried women and lower than that of married women, i.e. (28.53%) which
is directly proportional to their family and household responsibilities. (Refer to Table 20
in Appendix)

15
 Figure 12 : Gender Pay Gap with respect to
Marital Status of Women Employees
40 35
35
28.53
30 26.53
25
20
15
10
5
0
Never Married Divorced Married

Causes of Gender Wage Gap

The forms of discrimination leading to the gender wage gap can be broadly classified into
two categories: the first is the direct gender discrimination in labour markets and the
second is occupational segregation (UNDP, 2006). The first category includes all forms of
discrimination when men and women both possess same level of educational qualification
and work experience and yet they are paid different pay levels for the same job only
because of their gender. This category of discrimination is relatively more visible and has
been significantly dealt with policy measures taken across the world through relevant
legislations. The second category of discrimination, i.e. occupational segregation is more
complex, relatively easy to hide and difficult to address with policy measures. It includes
segregation of women from some kind of jobs due to underlying social practices. Data
suggests that participation of women is concentrated in agriculture and allied activities and
service sector across the world, whereas participation of women in industries and
manufacturing (18.3%) is significantly lower than that of men (26.6%) (ILO, 2009). The
Gender wage gap persists even in the sectors of high concentration of women.

This under-valuation of female labour is found in all the sectors of an economy. This
might be because of the stereotypical consideration of the primary responsibility of women
as household work, child bearing and care, elderly care and fetching water and fuel for
domestic purpose from natural resources wherever required. This influences the
representation of women and their work in labour market (UNIFEM, 2005).

Societal norms and practices lead to specific choices of occupations by women. These
differences in occupational choices of men and women are sometimes referred to as
selection effect (Petersen and Snartland, 2005). This also implies that the employers
instead of making work zones friendly for both genders, are favouring men over women in
employment. Further, the representation of women as a group in organised labour unions is
highly insignificant which further reduces their bargaining power in the labour market.

16
Child birth and child care are another important factors influencing women’s choices of
occupation. They are more likely to take up part-time jobs or leave their jobs during child
bearing and child care which makes most of them unable to return to the labour force and
those who return are often unable to retain the same designations and income level due to
break in their career. Not only this, even those married women who presently don’t have
children are perceived as “potential mothers” and are sometimes devoid of promotions
owing to this (Goldberg Dey and Hill, 2007). This calls for strict legislations for child care
leave and compensation for women as a social security benefit in all the countries.

References

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Boserup, E. (1970) Women’s Role in Economic Development. New York: St Martin’s Press.

Brown, Randall S., Moon, Marilyn & Zoloth, Barbara S. (1980), “Occupational Attainment and
Segregation by Sex”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Jul., 1980), pp. 506-
517

Goel, Manisha (2009) Trends in Wage Inequality in India, Working Paper Series, Department of
Economics, The Ohio State University

Goldberg Dey, Judy and Catherine Hill (2007), Behind the Pay Gap. American Association of
University Women Educational Foundation, Washington, DC.

International Labour Organisation (ILO), 2009: Global Employment Trends for

Women.http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/documents/
publication/wcms_ 103456.pdf

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School of Economics

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India,.Education Economics, 9(2), 173.195.

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Wage Gap in India: Boserup Revisited , Working Paper Series, Indian Statistical Institute Delhi,
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Working Lifetime. http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCOnePager20.pdf

18
 Appendix

Table 1: Rural-Urban Distribution of Sex Ratio (Females per 1000 Males), India

Year Rural Sex Ratio Urban Sex Ratio Total Sex Ratio
1901 979 910 972
1911 975 872 964
1921 970 846 955
1931 966 838 950
1941 965 831 945
1951 965 860 946
1961 963 845 941
1971 949 858 930
1981 951 879 934
1991 938 894 927
2001 946 901 933
2011 949 929 943
Source: Office of the Registrar General, India.

Table 2: Workforce Participation Rate In Rural and Urban India

And Female Workforce Participation Gap
Rural Urban
Year Female Male Female Participation Gap Female Male Female Participation Gap
1993-94 32.8 55.3 -67.2 15.5 52.1 -84.5
1994-95a 31.7 56 -68.3 13.6 51.9 -86.4
a
1995-96 29.5 55.1 -70.5 12.4 52.5 -87.6
a
1996-97 29.1 55 -70.9 13.1 52.1 -86.9
a
1998 26.3 53.9 -73.7 11.4 50.9 -88.6
1999-2000 29.9 53.1 -70.1 13.9 51.8 -86.1
2000-2001a 28.7 54.4 -71.3 14 53.1 -86
a
2001-2002 31.4 54.6 -68.6 13.9 55.3 -86.1
a
2002 28.1 54.6 -71.9 14 53.4 -86
2004-05 32.7 54.6 -67.3 16.6 54.9 -83.4
2005-06a 31 54.9 -69 14.3 54 -85.7
2007-08a 28.9 54.8 -71.1 13.8 55.4 -86.2
2009-10 26.1 54.7 -73.9 13.8 54.3 -86.2
2011-12 24.8 54.3 -75.2 14.7 54.6 -85.3
Source: Author's own calculation on data from National Sample Survey Organisation.
Note : Figures for all the years are based on usual status approach and includes principal status and
subsidiary status workers of all ages.

19
 Table 3: Labour Force Participation Rates by Age-Group, Sex and Residence
Year 15-29 30-44 45-59 60 & above Total
Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Rural
2001- 2002* 32.6 76.3 46.4 98.7 40.4 96.2 15.8 69.6 24.6 53.8
2011- 2012 18.3 63.1 33.4 98.9 34.0 96.6 - - 18.1 54.7
Urban
2000- 2001* 13.1 64.9 22.7 98.3 21.3 92.7 7.5 39.1 12.1 54.8
2011- 2012 15.9 59.9 23.3 98.8 19.2 94.1 - - 13.4 56.0
Source: National Sample Survey Office.

Table 4: Women Employment in Organised Sector

YEAR % of Women in Public Sector % of Women in Private Sector % of Women in Total
1992 12.8 19.4 14.4
1993 12.8 19.7 14.8
1994 13.2 20.0 15.2
1995 13.4 20.2 15.4
1996 13.6 21.1 15.8
1997 14.0 22.0 16.4
1998 14.2 23.0 17.0
1999 14.5 23.2 17.2
2000 14.8 23.9 17.6
2001 14.9 24.2 17.8
2002 15.4 24.3 18.1
2003 15.6 24.5 18.4
2004 15.9 24.8 18.7
2005 16.2 24.8 19.0
2006 16.5 24.1 19.0
2007 16.8 24.7 19.5
2008 17.2 25.0 20.0
2009 17.4 24.2 19.9
2010 17.9 24.5 20.4
2011 18.1 24.3 20.5
Source: Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour.

20
 Table 5: Women Employment in Organised Sector by Industrial Activity
(Figures in Thousands)
Public Sector Private Sector
Code Industrial activity 1991 2001 2011 1991 2001 2011
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing
0 51.1 48.3 59.6 446.5 464.4 430.8
and Hunting
1 Mining & Quarrying 62.1 55.6 82.8 16.5 8.4 7.2
2&3 Manufacturing 112.3 93.0 77.4 484.3 937.0 966.7
4 Electricity, Gas & Water 30.5 44.7 56.4 0.8 1.3 3.2
5 Construction 55.3 63.2 65.4 6.0 4.0 7.1
Wholesale & Retail Trade and
6 13.2 17.4 13.9 21.1 29.4 70.0
Restaurants and Hotels
Transport, Storage &
7 136.7 174.9 190.0 3.2 8.1 27.3
Communications
Financing , Insurance, Real
8 146.8 184.8 222.4 27.4 60.2 417.1
Estate & Business Services
Community, Social and
9 1738.8 2177.2 2363.5 428.4 577.3 850.6
Personal Services
Total 2346.8 2859.2 3131.3 1434.2 2090.1 2779.9
Source: Directorate General of Employment and Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Table 6: Percentage Distribution of Workers (Main + Marginal) According to Category of

Worker by Sex and Residence in India: 2011
Rural Urban Combined
Category of worker
Female Male Total Female Male Total Female Male Total
Cultivators 28.83 35.21 32.98 3.05 2.73 2.80 24.01 24.92 24.64
Agricultural Labourers 48.48 34.37 39.30 9.01 4.58 5.51 41.09 24.93 29.96
Household Industry workers 4.99 2.59 3.43 8.83 3.72 4.80 5.71 2.95 3.81
Other Workers 17.69 27.84 24.29 79.11 88.97 86.90 29.18 47.20 41.60
All workers 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00
Total workers (Main+
121.83 226.76 348.60 28.04 105.10 133.15 149.88 331.87 481.74
Marginal) (In Millions)
Source: Worked out from Census 2011 data, Office of the Registrar General, India.

21
 Table 7: Female Employees and Hired Workers in Non-Agricultural Establishments
Rural Urban Combined
Hired Hired Hired
Major Activity Group Employees Workers Employees Workers Employees Workers
% %
% Female % Female % Female Female % Female Female
Mining & Quarrying 19.4 19.9 10.7 11.1 16.7 17.1
Manufacturing 28.0 29.4 13.2 14.2 19.9 21.1
Electricity, Gas & Water 5.7 5.7 7.9 8.0 7.0 7.0
Construction 14.3 16.3 13.1 15.2 13.6 15.6
Wholesale Trade 24.0 28.2 8.5 10.5 12.7 15.4
Retail Trade, Sale,
Maintenance, Repair of 15.6 18.1 10.0 12.3 11.7 14.1
Vehicles
Hotels & Restaurants 17.0 18.4 10.4 11.6 12.6 13.8
Transport, Storage &
8.3 9.5 8.3 9.3 8.3 9.3
Ware-housing
Communications 12.3 12.9 18.1 20.0 16.4 17.9
Financial, insurance, Real
14.5 16.1 16.2 18.0 15.8 17.5
Estate & Business Services
Public Administration,
Defense, Compulsory
Social security, 26.8 30.3 25.4 26.4 27.3 28.2
Community, Social &
Personal Services
Other(unspecified)
15.4 18.2 23.1 25.0 20.5 23.5
activities
All Non- agricultural
24.3 26.1 15.5 17.4 19.0 20.9
activities
Source: Report of Economic Census 2005, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme
Implementation.
Note: Total may not tally with the 'all Non- agricultural activities' due to rounding off.

22
 Table 8: Distribution of Main Workers by Sex in Industrial Categories – 2001
Percentage
Percentage share of
share
Code Industrial Category different industries in
female employment
Female Male
1 2 3 4 5
A,B Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry; Fishing 36.7 63.3 14.5

C Mining and Quarrying 13.8 86.2 1.1

D Manufacturing and Repairs 21.6 78.4 36.1
E Electricity, Gas and Water Supply 4.4 95.6 0.3
F Construction 9.2 90.8 4.3
G Wholesale and Retail Trade 6.9 93.1 7.4
H Hotels and Restaurants 9.1 90.9 0.9
I Transport, Storage and Communications 2.9 97.1 1.5
Financial Intermediation; Real Estate,
J,K 12.4 87.6 3.0
Renting and Business Activities
Public Administration & Defence;
L-Q Education; Health; Community and Social 24.9 75.1 31.1
Services; Pvt. Households; etc
Total 17.1 82.9 100.0
Source: Office of Registrar General, India; Census of India 2001, General Economic Tables.

23
 Table 9:Female Employees in Central Government
No. of Employees
% of Female
Year Female Total employees
(Figures in Lakh)
1 2 3 4
1971 0.67 26.99 2.51
1975 0.84 29.70 2.83
1980 1.17 33.21 3.53
1981 1.24 34.07 3.64
1982 1.32 34.78 3.80
1983 1.37 35.42 3.86
1984 1.42 36.14 3.93
1988 2.39 36.99 6.46
1989 2.47 37.48 6.60
1990 2.83 37.74 7.51
1991 2.89 38.13 7.58
1995 2.96 39.82 7.43
2001 2.92 38.76 7.53
2002 NA NA NA
2003 2.51 31.33 8.01
2004 3.06 31.64 9.68
2005 2.44 29.39 8.30
2006 3.20 31.16 10.28
2007 2.41 28.00 8.61
2008 3.14 31.12 10.09
2009 3.11 30.99 10.04
Source: Census of Central Government Employees, Directorate General of
Employment and Training, Ministry of Labour. NA: Not Available.

24
 Table 10: Gender Wage/ Salary Gap for Regular Wage/Salaried Employees of Age 15-59 Years by Industry of
Work, Sector and Broad Educational Level: 2007-08

Educational level
Industry Literate and Secondary & Hr Diploma/ Graduate and
Not literate All
division upto middle Secondary Certificate Course above

Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Agriculture
(01-05) 85.52 82.02 78.31 140.89 53.04 22.92 202.39 - 137.98 48.84 69.09 61.89
Mining and
Quarrying
(10-14) 47.99 79.72 85.82 36.57 - 182.73 - - - 156.61 56.96 56.43
Manufacturi
ng (15-22) 61.68 70.85 63.60 69.75 39.80 65.61 36.78 83.08 101.20 77.23 51.69 58.73

Manufacturi
ng (23-37) 58.91 99.73 50.23 78.16 45.44 63.46 49.88 104.48 40.39 73.08 41.70 83.32
Electricity
Gas &
Water(40- 120.1
41) 2 40.26 54.37 75.17 33.64 59.38 107.51 99.73 118.37 138.83 90.04 69.49
Construction
(45) 77.98 55.36 71.60 47.65 85.27 54.92 228.66 47.23 - 54.27 95.71 74.69

Trade (50-
55) 92.38 63.23 77.46 83.11 76.37 61.51 33.02 77.61 59.12 86.47 77.78 80.71
Transport
and Storage
etc.(60-64) 120.3 119.75 81.03 75.18 75.46 83.84 32.06 50.83 125.29 111.82 106.01 129.90

Services
(65-74) 0.00 292.99 103.4 115.32 49.25 91.03 25.96 59.37 47.59 70.76 53.57 86.71

Services(75-
93) 49.67 52.69 34.99 50.85 48.40 64.02 72.83 65.16 69.60 75.28 51.32 68.62
Private hhs
with emp.
Persons(95) 57.64 55.80 64.15 46.04 614.36 51.31 - - - 74.60 44.47 39.93
All 55.84 58.81 50.99 63.82 58.01 72.01 85.21 67.51 71.63 74.57 61.69 77.11
Source: Author’s calculations based on National Sample Survey Office, 64th Round (July 2007 - June 2008)
Note: Codes in brackets represent National Industrial Classification (NIC), 2004 industry codes.

Note: Gender Wage/Salary Gap is calculated by Female Average Wage/Salary (in Rs.) as a
Percentage of Male Average Wage/ Salary received per day

25
 Table 11: Gender Wage Gap in Casual Labourers by Type of
Industry
Industry of Work Rural Urban
Agriculture (01-05) 72.76 58.63
Mining and Quarrying (10-14) 64.81 105.59
Manufacturing (15-22) 55.62 56.37
Manufacturing (23-37) 73.35 47.39
Electricity Gas & Water (40-41) 69.42 101.76
Construction (45) 79.42 70.10
Trade (50-55) 70.84 78.09
Transport and Storage etc. (60-64) 62.12 50.19
Services (65-74) 183.78 32.26
Services (75-93) 48.42 54.13
Private hhs with emp. Persons (95) 67.05 55.37
All 66.67 56.11
Source: Author’s calculations based on Employment and Unemployment Situation in
India: 2007-08, NSS 64th Round.
Note: Figures pertain to all ages (5 years and above) for current daily status.
Note: Gender Wage Gap is calculated by Female Average Wage (in Rs.) as a Percentage of
Male Average Wage received per day

Table 12 : Year-wise Gender Pay Gap in India

26
Table 13: Gender Pay Gap across Indian States Zone-wise

27
Table 14: Annual Salary Range and Gender Pay Gap in India

Table 15: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Age of Employees

28
Table 16: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Years of work Experience

Table 17: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Designation in Occupational Hierarchy

Table 18: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Type of Employment

29
Table 19: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Level of Skill

Table 20: Gender Pay Gap with respect to Marital Status

30