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Gender Wage Differential in Public and Private Sectors in India

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  • Shiney Chakraborty

    (Institute of Social Studies Trust)

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of gender wage differential in the overall labour market, public–private sectors in India by applying different decomposition techniques, using the National Sample Survey, 50th, 68th rounds of Employment and Unemployment surveys along with the recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey (2018–2019). The results show that the unexplained component explained the major part of the gap and occupational discrimination was considerably more important than wage discrimination. The increase in gender wage gap in the public sector is because of the implementation of various public employment schemes for nutrition, health and education and the increasing reliance on underpaid women workers in implementing the same. It had the perverse effect of intensifying gender discrimination in terms of occupational segmentation and gender wage gaps. Finally, the study recommends that public policy can play a major positive role in rectifying this distressing situation and a strong political will is required to do so.

Suggested Citation

  • Shiney Chakraborty, 2020. "Gender Wage Differential in Public and Private Sectors in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(3), pages 765-780, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:63:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-020-00246-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-020-00246-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Islam, Asad & Pakrashi, Debayan & Sahoo, Soubhagya & Wang, Liang Choon & Zenou, Yves, 2021. "Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 111-124.
    2. Rahul MENON, 2021. "Determinants of inequality in Indian regular wage employment, 1993–2012," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(3), pages 477-500, September.
    3. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, 2023. "Gender Wage Gap among Rural Non-farm Sector Employees in India: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(1), pages 22-44, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage differential; Wage discrimination; Job discrimination; Public–private sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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