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Wage Inequality and Job Insecurity Among Permanent and Contract Workers in India: Evidence from Organized Manufacturing Industries

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  • Amit K Bhandari
  • Almas Heshmati

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the employment structure of organized manufacturing industries in India has undergone substantial changes with steep rise in the use of contract workers in place of permanent workers. This process has led to increased wage inequality, discrimination as well as concern of job insecurity in the labor market. The paper focuses on wage inequality between permanent and contract workers, since contract workers earn substantially lower wages than their counterparts. The study uses data at the individual level from a recent labor survey of organized manufacturing industries in the India. The lower wage earned by contract workers is largely due to cost cutting, rather than differences in labor productivity. The issue of job insecurity has been modeled in the form of a binary logistic model. The factors affecting job security are divided into productivity-related attributes such as level of education and skill, and institutional attributes such as labor market rules and regulations and union membership. Contrary to the general expectation, the study finds that permanent workers are more concerned regarding job insecurity than the contract workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Amit K Bhandari & Almas Heshmati, 2008. "Wage Inequality and Job Insecurity Among Permanent and Contract Workers in India: Evidence from Organized Manufacturing Industries," The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1), pages 80-111, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:icf:icfjae:v:07:y:2008:i:1:p:80-111
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heckman, James J. & Lochner, Lance J. & Todd, Petra E., 2006. "Earnings Functions, Rates of Return and Treatment Effects: The Mincer Equation and Beyond," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 307-458, Elsevier.
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    3. Almas Heshmati, 2003. "Productivity Growth, Efficiency and Outsourcing in Manufacturing and Service Industries," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 79-112, February.
    4. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sonal Ann D’souza & Panchendra K. Naik, 2018. "Trade Liberalisation, Capital-Intensive Export and Informalisation: A Case Study of India’s Manufacturing Sector," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(2), pages 377-399, June.
    2. Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu, 2023. "Wage Inequality in Pakistan: How Does Contract Status Matter?," Post-Print hal-04248144, HAL.
    3. repec:ilo:ilowps:466556 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Hansa Jain, 2019. "Wage–Productivity Relationship in Indian Manufacturing Industries: Evidences from State-level Panel Data," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 13(3), pages 277-305, August.
    5. Basu, Arnab K. & Chau, Nancy H. & Soundararajan, Vidhya, 2021. "Contract employment as a worker discipline device," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Almas Heshmati & Biwei Su, 2017. "Analysis Of Gender Wage Differential In China’S Urban Labor Market," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 423-445, June.
    7. Rahul Menon, 2019. "Short-term contracts and their effect on wages in Indian regular wage employment," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(1), pages 142-164, March.
    8. Nguyễn, Hữu Chí. & Nguyen-Huu, Thanh Tam. & Le, Thi-Thuy-Linh., 2016. "Non-standard forms of employment in some Asian countries : a study of wages and working conditions of temporary workers," ILO Working Papers 994901213402676, International Labour Organization.
    9. Alison J. Glaister & Yipeng Liu & Sunil Sahadev & Emanuel Gomes, 2014. "Externalizing, Internalizing and Fostering Commitment: The Case of Born-Global Firms in Emerging Economies," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 473-496, August.
    10. Thanh-Tam Nguyen-Huu, 2021. "Do “inferior” jobs always suffer from a wage penalty? Evidence from temporary workers in Cambodia and Pakistan," Post-Print hal-04248181, HAL.
    11. Simontini Das, 2018. "Does Casualization Increase the Job Opportunity to the Workers or Impoverish Them? An Evidence from Indian-Organized Manufacturing Sector," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 19(1), pages 86-107, March.
    12. Ritabrata Bose & K.V. Ramaswamy, 2020. "Globalization and workforce composition in Indian formal manufacturing: New evidence on product market competition channel," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2020-036, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    13. Shyam Sundar, K.R., 2011. "Non-regular workers in India : social dialogue and organizational and bargaining strategies and practices," ILO Working Papers 994665563402676, International Labour Organization.
    14. Landau, Ingrid & Mahy, Petra. & Mitchell, Richard., 2015. "The regulation of non-standard forms of employment in India, Indonesia and Viet Nam," ILO Working Papers 994888153402676, International Labour Organization.
    15. George, Elizabeth. & Chattopadhyay, Prithviraj., 2015. "Non-standard work and workers : organizational implications," ILO Working Papers 994883083402676, International Labour Organization.
    16. Sonja Fagernäs, 2010. "Labor Law, Judicial Efficiency, and Informal Employment in India," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 282-321, June.
    17. Hansa Jain, 2017. "Contractualization and Wage Differences: Evidence from Organized Manufacturing Industries in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(3), pages 461-479, September.
    18. Rai, Soumi, 2012. "Human resource management and labour relations in the Indian industrial sector," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2012-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    19. Subhendu Patnaik & Uma Sankar Mishra & Bibhuti Bhusan Mishra, 2022. "Can psychological capital reduce stress and job insecurity? An experimental examination with indian evidence," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 1071-1096, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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