Gender pay gap in India – bridging it through HR strategy

Abstract

Our primary research focuses on some of the aspects like the reasons behind the pay gap (both direct and indirect financial payments) and the reasons women moving out of thelabour market can be attributed. Globally, women spend 4hrs. 22 min., per day in unpaid labour compared to 2hrs. and 15min., for men. In India, there is a much wider gap in these statistics.In India,There are still instances where girls are kept out of school and not allowed to work by their families, even when educated. Also, the women joining the workforce had to take extended leaves for maternity, childcare, and even for the family members' health care, which is high in India compared to the world. The gender pay gap differs with different industries. Across the unorganized sectors like agriculture, women are paid less than men citing the capability issues. However, there is a notable pay gap in the organized sectors also. Men earn 26% more than women in IT services and 24% more in the manufacturing sector. We would like to study the pay gap across select industries in the organized sector through this study.