Vulnerable Sites: Bottom-of-the Pyramid Blue-Collar Workers, Occupational Gendering and Earnings Disparity

India is the world’s largest blue-collar recruiting market, yet this economy stays invisible and under-explored. This research examined the earnings opportunity of the bottom-of-the pyramid blue-collar worker, namely those who have not even cleared class X. The study analysed job postings across 13 Indian cities within 17 job profiles, on a popular blue-collar job portal and found significant disparity in earnings based on gender, job profile, and job location. Two-step clustering model revealed occupational gendering such that women will be kept out of certain jobs, and there was significant evidence of a masculinised skill perception within a significant proportion of the job postings. The image of the blue-collar worker is dominantly that of a male worker. The study found that high paying job postings such as delivery person and cook were associated significantly with a male requirement, while low-paying jobs ranging from housekeeping (including house maids) to receptionist formed the bulk of demand for women workers. Occupational segregation and cultural discrimination may be creating a structural bias against blue-collar women locking them in a constrained life position. However, men’s vulnerability was also observed in the data as the high paying delivery profile along with office boy/peon had lowest salary much lower than minimum wage. Online job-portals can offer an alternative research site to understand the challenges and precarious status of blue-collar workers, thereby addressing the data paucity issue. Excavating insights from such natural experiments can form a basis for developing appropriate educational, training and bargaining solutions for them.