The scenario of gender pay parity is far from desired in India, especially when the country is gearing towards greater economic growth.

As India readies to celebrate International Women’s Day, Monster India, an online career and recruitment solutions providers in the country, released its latest ‘Monster Salary Index’ (MSI) highlighting the key aspects around gender. This index is complimented with the key findings from the second annual survey titled Women of India Inc. also undertaken by Monster.com.

Monster Salary Index- Gender pay gap:

The MSI data from 2017 indicates that the current gender pay gap in India stands at 20 percent where men earned a median gross hourly salary of Rs. 231, in comparison, women earned only Rs. 184.8. The gap has narrowed by about five percentage points from 24.8 percent in 2016 however, the good news ends here. The 2017 MSI data suggests that gender pay gap in India increases with work experience. While men with 0-2 years of experience, earned 7.8 percent higher median wages than women, men with 6-10 years of experience, earned 15.3 percent more. Men with 11 and more years of experience earned 25 percent higher median wages than women. Interestingly, there is a marginally inverted pay gap in the experience group of 3-5 years, where women are earning more.

Sharing his views on the findings of the latest MSI, Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO, Monster.com- APAC & Gulf said, “Let’s not get carried away with the narrowing gender pay gap revealed by the 2017 MSI because the gender pay gap in India widens as one gain work experience. Moreover, the overall gender pay gap of 20 percent is still a daunting number.

The scenario of gender pay parity is far from desired in India, especially when the country is gearing towards greater economic growth. However, before expecting a change in the pay parity policy, attitudes of men and women need to shift for this to become a reality. One thing that came to my attention from the Monster Women of India Inc. survey, was that as high as 40 percent women expressed that men fear being judged by their male peers and choose to support gender equality only in private. Also, 40 percent women feel men simply do not know what to do or say. The bright side is that 44 percent men confirm that they can be effective advocates for gender initiative programs at the workplace.”