Indian women pay is just two-fifths of male counterparts’
India’s working women earn just Rs 40 for every Rs 100 earned by men, a new survey has found.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index 2024 also found that India has slipped two spots to 129th place out of the 146 nations in the list. While India’s economic parity score has been improving, it is 6.2 percentage points below 2012’s level of 46%.
The Gender Gap index data showed that Sudan has replaced Afghanistan at the bottom of the list, with no figures available for the Taliban-ruled nation. Malawi, Myanmar and Russia were also not featured in the survey, with no figures being available.
Within south Asia, Pakistan showed the poorest performance, while Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan were ranked ahead of India.
India also featured among the group of nations to have one of the lowest levels of economic gender parity. India’s economic parity stood at 39.8%, meaning that women in India on average earn Rs 39.8 for every Rs 100 that men earn.
The report also noted that India has closed 64.1% of its gender gap in 2024. While India’s economic parity score has been improving, it needs to increase by 6.2 percentage points to return to its 2012 level of 46%, the report said.
The lowest levels of economic gender parity were also observed in Sudan at 33.7%; Iran, 34.3%; Pakistan, 36%, and Morocco, 40.6%.
“These economies all register less than 30% gender parity in estimated earned income,” the report said, noting that bridging the gap in the economic participation and opportunity between men and women is the second-biggest hurdle in dealing with the global gender gap.
Overall, Iceland topped this year’s list as the most gender-equal country in the world, while Finland and Norway followed next. The UK ranked 14th, Denmark 15th and South Africa 18th. The United States ranked 43, Italy 87, Israel 91, South Korea 94 and Bangladesh at 99.
According to the World Economic Forum’s report, at the current rate of progress it will take 134 years to reach full parity in the year 2158.
Crisil/DBS Bank India highlights workplace gender bias
Meanwhile, 16% of Indian women perceive a gender bias in the workplace, a survey by rating agency Crisil and DBS Bank India has found.
It also found that while salary and career advancement ranked as the two biggest factors when selecting a job for 69% of salaried women, 42% of self-employed women prioritised independence and flexible working hours. When it comes to remote working, the survey found that it is not a high priority among salaried women, with only 3% considering it essential.
For self-employed women, focusing on wealth building and identifying a specific market need or opportunity for starting a business ranked as other top parameters, in addition to their independence and flexible hours, the survey found.
The research is based on a survey of over 800 salaried and self-employed women across 10 cities in India.
Semi-affluent women, earning between Rs 10 lakhs (£9,300) to 25 lakhs (£28,000) annually, and affluent women with salaries ranging from Rs 41 to 55 lakhs per year, have varying perspectives on the gender pay gap. Affluent women reported a higher perception of the gender pay gap at 30%, while this stood at 18% among semi-affluent women.
A similar trend was seen with the perception of gender bias at the workplace, with 30% of affluent women asserting that they had experienced it, significantly higher than the 12% of women in the semi-affluent cohort who had perceived the same bias.
Among salaried women, those who are unmarried show a greater appreciation for mentorship and career development opportunities compared with their married counterparts. Specifically, 26% of unmarried women express appreciation for such programs, compared to 16% of married women.
