Gender pay inequalities and gaps in India

• India is among the most important countries when it comes to the global economic growth and structural transformation story.
• Improvement in its labour market outcomes and a fair distribution of the fruits of economic progress will spur further economic growth.

Impact of the pandemic

• It is important to reduce the gender pay gap and reaffirm the commitment to the effective realisation of the principle ‘equal pay for work of equal value’.
• Full and productive economic growth requires a human-centred recovery from the pandemic.
• Can be done by improving women’s employment outcomes and reducing the gender pay gap.
• The impact of the pandemic has been uneven, with women being among the worst affected in terms of their income security.

A wider pay gap

• ILO’s “Global Wage Report 2020–21” - pandemic inflicted massive downward pressure on wages and disproportionately affected women’s total wages w.r.t. men.
• Means that the pre-existing gender pay gap has widened.
• Indian women earned 48% less compared to their male counterparts in 1993-94.
• The gap declined to 28% in 2018-19.
• In the pandemic, the gap increased by 7% between 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Discrimination as factor

• Gender-based discriminatory practices include:
• lower wages paid to women for work of equal value
• undervaluation of women’s work in highly feminised occupations and enterprises
• motherhood pay gap — lower wages for mothers compared to non-mothers.

International interventions

• United Nations has put the challenge of closing various forms of gender inequality at the heart of its actions.
• ILO has enshrined ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ in its Constitution
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) provides an international legal framework for realising gender equality.
• Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), 2017
• A multi-stakeholder initiative led by the ILO, UN Women and OECD
• Seeks to achieve equal pay for women and men everywhere.

Steps taken by India

• Minimum Wages Act, 1948
• Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
• Code on Wages. 2019
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005
• Benefited rural women workers and helped reduce the gender pay gap.
• Directly - raising the pay levels of women workers who participated in the programme
• Indirectly - benefits accrued to women involved in agricultural occupations through higher earnings
• Amended Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (2017)
• Increased ‘maternity leave with pay protection’ from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for women working in establishments employing ≥ 10 workers
• To reduce the motherhood pay gap in the median and high-end wage earners working in the formal economy.
• Skill India Mission
• To equip women with market-relevant skills to bridge the learning-to-livelihood gap and the gender pay gap.

Conclusion

• While the gender pay gap is slowly narrowing, at the current rate of progress it will take more than 70 years to close it completely.
• Accelerated and bold action is needed to prevent a widening of the gender pay gap and closing the existing gap.

Prelims Takeaway

• ILO
• Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC)