Indian IT industry faces a gender pay gap of 29% - July 23 - 2014

• IT sector employs only 30% of women out of its total workforce
• Male IT worker receives gross salary of ₹ 359.25 per hour, female receives ₹ 254.04 per hour
• Inequality reflection of men being in more supervisory positions than women in the IT sector

National, 23 July, 2014 – Monster India (www.monsterindia.com), one of the leading online career and recruitment solutions providers in the country, launched the ‘Monster Salary Index India IT Sector Report 2014’ at the NASSCOM HR Summit 2014 held in Chennai today.

• Download the report (pdf, 5.13MB)

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. MSI has successfully empowered jobseekers with a benchmarking 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 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.

One of the most astounding findings of the report is that the gender pay gap in the IT industry is as high as 29 per cent. As per the Monster Salary Index, the male IT worker receives gross salary of ₹ 359.25 per hour while female receives ₹ 254.04 per hour. This disparity possibly emerges from the fact that men get promoted to supervisory position more often than women.

Table 1: Average earnings of men and women in the Indian IT industry, for the whole sector and broken down per gender.

Source: WageIndicator Foundation

Sharing his perspective on the findings, Mr. Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/Middle East/ Southeast Asia/Hong Kong) said, “We are delighted to release the Monster Salary Index India IT Report 2014. Amongst many other aspects that the report has highlighted - the revelation is the enormous gender gap which employs only 30% women. It is surprising to see that the most modern sector of India is not only predisposed to a certain gender but is also paying lesser to women employees than their male counterparts with a grave pay gap of 29 per cent.”

Further adding to this Mr. Modi said, “In India, marital status can be cited as a reason for lack of opportunities and growth avenues for a gender. Also with the socio-cultural mindset, women often prefer or are compelled to take up part-time jobs because it is expected that they fulfill primary responsibility of taking care of household activities and children. I am hopeful that we, along with the industry can play an instrumental role in changing the existing dynamics to make it a far more egalitarian ecosystem.”

The report also states that the tenure of an employee with an organisation is a compelling factor that sways the salary of an employee. More experienced workers are paid better than less experienced ones. While on an average an employee with less than 3 years of experience gets ₹ 142.97 per hour and an employee with more than 10 years of experience gets ₹ 625.55 per hour. Women have started being active in the IT sector only recently and are also likely to find it harder to accumulate tenure due to family obligations. Re-entry to the job market is difficult for women and they are often paid less when they decide to enter the labour market again. With more number of career breaks in their job history, the negotiating capacity of women in the labour market declines. Hence, men with similar experience earn higher salary as compared to women.

Commenting on the salary trends, Paulien Osse, Director WageIndicator Foundation said, “The MSI-IT report is a perfect illustration of how a methodical research and distribution approach on salaries is aiding many people who seek a good benchmark to take a sagacious decision. This collaboration with Monster has improved our data intake and enabled robust output, in terms of salary related information and profound insights in the employment market trends. I hope it will encourage women employees and their employers to improve employment scenario for women in IT sector.”

Sharing his views, Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, President, NASSCOM said, “The growth of the IT sector has tremendously contributed to the growth of the Indian economy, enabling GDP growth, exports and employment. The employees of the sector are an integral part of this domain and have strived to create an environment of sustained growth across verticals. This is an insightful report that will help us to delve deeper to understand the scenario of talent in the Indian IT ecosystem; enabling us to draw insights on the growth opportunities of the sector and salary parameters. This report highlights the strong need to create equal opportunities for all employees and specially women who are a key contributor to the industry, as it would pave the path for new avenues in developing the economic scenario.”

Giving his opinion, Prof. Biju Varkkey of IIM-Ahmedabad expressed that Monster Salary Index has created a standard for the industry. The report highlights different aspects of compensation in the IT sector that is leading to the dynamic employment scenario in India. Another interesting insight of this report is that male workers with permanent contracts get paid better than those employed for a limited time. Women employed for a limited time get paid better than those with permanent contracts as a measure taken by corporates to sustain talent. The other influencing factors are company size and ownership. It is observed that wholly owned foreign companies pay higher salaries. In India about 65% of workforce in IT sector works in large to mid-sized companies with more than 5,000 employees.

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.

Download the report (pdf, 5.13MB)