The gender pay gap in India stands at 27 per cent, said a report by online career and recruitment solutions provider Monster India. Its Monster Salary Index (MSI) indicated that while men earned a median gross hourly salary of Rs 288.68, women earned only a median gross salary of Rs 207.85 per hour.

The report covers eight sectors — IT (information technology) services; health care, caring services, social work; education, research; financial services, banking, insurance; transport, logistics, communication; construction and technical consultancy; manufacturing and legal and market consultancy; business activities.

Analysing the trends of the Indian job market, the highest gender pay gap was recorded in the manufacturing sector at 34.9 per cent. The lowest gender pay gap was recorded in the BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance) and transport, logistics, communication, equally standing at 17.7 per cent each. The report said that some of the reasons behind this gender pay gap could be the preference for male employees over female employees, preference for promotion of male employees to supervisory positions, career breaks of women due to parenthood duties and other socio-cultural factors.

Sanjay Modi, managing director (India, West Asia,  Southeast Asia, Hong Kong) said men often receive higher salary offers than women vying for the same title in the same organisation. He added that the task at hand is the pace at which this pay gap can be bridged. The analysis presented in this report is based on the WageIndicator dataset covering the period of two years and nine months, from January 2013 to September 2015. This report provides a comparison of wage and working conditions figures for three periods: 2013, 2014 and the first three quarters of 2015 (January-September 2015).

The wage analysis is based on data collected from the Paycheck.in, Salary Calculator and Monster Salary Index from the aforementioned periods. The sample used for the analysis consists of 31,193 respondents. The sample contains only employees; wages of self-employed people are excluded. Employees from different age groups, varied industries, and various hierarchical positions in their respective occupations are included in the sample.

MSI is aimed at empowering job-seekers by establishing a benchmark to compare their salaries with other anonymous profiles across a broad spectrum of industry domains, experience, functional groups both in India and other global markets. For employers, MSI has an online salary survey that aims to provide employers with practical information and helps them make informed decisions by analyzing the salary market and optimizing employee remuneration. 

Monster Salary Index (MSI) is an initiative by Monster India in collaboration with Paycheck.in (managed by WageIndicator Foundation) and IIM-Ahmedabad as a research partner. For employers, MSI is an online salary survey that aims to provide employers with practical information and helps them make informed decisions by analyzing the salary market and optimizing employee remuneration.