The wage gap between men and women has been consistently proven using statistics, experiences, and research, but it continues to be dismissed as a myth—and not only by men in news article comment sections.

At its simplest, pay parity means equal pay for equal work. But, the reality is a bit more complex.

Across sectors, from corporate boardrooms to rural farms, women are consistently paid less than men.

And it isn’t about whether women can handle tough jobs—most men don’t work in physically demanding roles either.

The real issue lies in deep-seated structural and cultural biases that undervalue women’s work or serve as barriers to higher paid jobs.

Inequality, But Make It Global

The gender pay gap looks a bit different around the world depending on who you look at and what kind of maths you do.

However, the world doesn’t discriminate when it comes to discriminating on the basis of gender.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2024, women continue to be paid about 20 per cent less than men, globally.

While there are stark differences in this gap across countries, no country has entirely erased the disparity.

Overt discrimination only explains a small part of the gap.

More subtle factors—choices women make about sectors, family, and work-life balance—serve as larger contributors.

A look at the gender gap across other indicators such as educational attainment, political empowerment, and health point to this larger context wherein economic opportunities are limited.

So, why does the wage gap still exist? Because the structural social and economic factors causing it still persist. 

India’s Wage Gap: Myths vs. Reality

The news can have you believe that things are better or worse than they seem. Add data into the mix and it becomes a tool to misinterpret reality.

Something similar has happened with headlines on India’s gender wage gap and at both ends of the spectrum. The reality is both worse and better than it seems.

On one end, reports touted that women had higher earnings at India’s tech unicorns; at the other end it was reported that women earned Rs 39.8 for every Rs 100 earned by men—both of which are wrong. 

The tech unicorn numbers should also draw attention to another gap.The number of male employees far outnumber the women.

From double the amount of men than women at Nykaa to 17x at Delhivery. This gender break-up also explains why the salary numbers can be misleading. 

It is possible that some of these companies have a division of labour in terms of office workers and field/warehouse staff.

With field staff typically being men it explains the large gap at Delhivery. Line up all employees’ salaries and what’s shown here is the middle number, the median.

If a lot of the staff comprises men with lower paying jobs it could cause their median to be lower than women employees. An average of the same numbers might reveal a different story.

For the second faux pas, news reports cited the Global Gender Gap Index 2024 by the World Economic Forum, which reported economic parity at 39.8 per cent for India—not pay parity.

While pay parity is a part of this number, economic parity means equal participation, opportunities, and pay in the economy.

This includes other factors such as labour force participation and job access. It doesn’t directly mean that women earn 40 rupees to a man’s Rs 100. 

The real numbers are still sobering. According to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24, the wage gap persists across sectors and the three categories of workers: self-employed, salaried, and casual labour.

Self-employed men earned about 3 times what women did, salaried men made around 1.2 times more, and male casual workers took home about 1.5 times women's earnings.

Even though labour force participation for women is growing, it’s still low at 41.7 per cent, compared to men’s at 78.8 per cent in 2023-24.

Women earn about 34 per cent less than men in high-skill jobs (Skill Levels 3 and 4) that require advanced education or specialised training, such as IT and management.

For medium-skill jobs (Skill Level 2), women earn about 21 per cent less, covering roles like technicians and skilled trades.

In low-skill jobs (Skill Level 1), women earn around 29 per cent less, typically involving manual labour such as agriculture and construction.

While there has been some progress in absolute hourly wages since 2018, the gap persists across all skill levels.

Sticky Floors And Glass Ceilings

Despite the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976, which mandates equal pay for equal work, something still holds women back, and it’s not just choice.

Social norms seem to prioritise men’s labour and leadership roles.

Even with equal qualifications and experience, women are often viewed as less reliable, primarily because traditional gender roles impose a disproportionate burden of caregiving on them, affecting their opportunities in both rural and urban settings.

The gender wage gap is not just about women being paid less for the same work; it's also about where women are concentrated in the workforce. Sectors like education, healthcare, and social services—feminised sectors—often have lower wages overall. 

On the other hand, sectors with higher pay scales, like technology and finance, remain male-dominated.

According to a recent report, significant disparities exist in India, particularly in high-potential job creation sectors such as Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Engineering, and Cloud Computing, where women represent only 24 per cent, 20 per cent, and 17 per cent of the workforce, respectively.

Women in rural areas face what economists call "sticky floors"—low-wage jobs with little to no opportunity for upward mobility i.e moving to higher paid work.

For women who break out of the "sticky floor" and climb the career ladder, the "glass ceiling" awaits.

A lack of representation in senior leadership and undervaluation in salary negotiations keeps women from achieving pay equity, even when they rise to higher positions.

Unpaid Labour And The Motherhood Penalty

The gap is also driven by the invisible labour that women perform at home. Time-use surveys show that Indian women spend a disproportionate amount of time on unpaid care work, such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children or the elderly.

Social expectations around marriage, childbirth, and household responsibilities can mean that many women are forced to leave the workforce at critical points in their careers.

PLFS does not capture the household activities of women while measuring employment. Their inclusion in the definition of “work” would change the depiction of women’s participation in the labour force in India.

As observed in the Time Use in India survey conducted by the MoSPI in 2019, on an average women spent about 7.5 hours per day while men spent about 2.8 hours per day for unpaid domestic and caregiving activities for household members.

This not only limits their time and availability for paid work, but also leads to a motherhood “penalty" where working women with children are seen as less committed to their careers, further reducing their chances for promotions and higher wages.

Economist Henrik Kleven from Princeton University studied the gender wage gap in Denmark, a country known for its robust social safety net. 

Kleven found that women’s earnings sharply decline after the birth of their first child, while men’s salaries remain unaffected. Over their careers, women end up earning 20 per cent less than their male counterparts. A simplified version of the study’s results are illustrated below to show the drop.

While women never truly get back to their career trajectory after a child, the career curve for men remains virtually the same.

Unfortunately, it seems that advice from a 1980s advice column from the US still holds: “If you are a man and you have a family, plaster your office with family pictures because people will think you are a very good provider. If you are a woman and you have children, don’t put pictures of your family up because people will think you can’t keep your mind on your work.”

The Way Forward

Rwanda and Iceland are often found on opposite ends of any global index. But, both offer powerful examples of consistent successful efforts to close the gender pay gap. 

In Rwanda, post the 1994 genocide, a demographic shift led to led to an economic restructuring, with women taking on roles traditionally held by men.

Targeted policies since then have sustained progress over the decades with Rwanda now having high female workforce participation. 

Iceland’s turning point came with a major strike in 1975 where women refused to work, cook, and look after children for a day to demonstrate the value of their work—paid and unpaid.

This led to labour reform and more gender equality in the workplace. Since then, it has been reinforced by policies like equal parental leave and government-enforced pay transparency. These measures have pushed Iceland to the top of most equality indices. 

While it shouldn’t take a genocide and a country-wide protest to enact change, India can take inspiration from these countries. Deeper systemic changes are required to ensure equal pay for equal value of work. 

A cultural shift is needed because achieving wage parity is not just about closing the gap, but addressing the systems that perpetuate it. Recognising caregiving as valuable labour and creating an environment where women can pursue both family and career (if they so choose) without penalty, is a start.

It was International Equal Pay Day last week. The day came and went without making any waves. While policies like the Equal Remuneration Act have existed in India for almost half a century, the numbers tell a different story. The gender wage gap is still a reality.