Women in India earn 16% less salary than men: Report

Women in India as well as women across the world earn an average of 16.1 per cent less salary than men as there are lesser number of women at higher-paying roles, says a Korn Ferry report.

The pay gap between men and women is real but the difference becomes a lot smaller while analysing same job level, same company, and same designation, as per the Korn Ferry Pay Index.

Globally, while considering the same level at the same organisation, the gender pay-gap reduce to 1.5 per cent, and when the male and female employees were at the same level and the same organisation and worked in the same function, the average difference amounted to 0.5 per cent.

In India, while calculating the same job designation, the gap is 4 per cent, and when considering the same level at the same organisation, the gap fell to 0.4 per cent. When male and female employees work at the same level, the gap fell to 0.2 per cent.

Researchers reviewed the information from Korn Ferry’s pay database and created the Korn Ferry Gender Pay Index. The database is an evaluation of gender and pay for more than 12.3 million employees in 14,284 companies in 53 countries across the globe.

"While there are still a number of organisations that pay women less for the same role, on average, when we compared women and men in the same job, the gap is significantly reduced," said Bob Wesselkamper, Korn Ferry head of Rewards and Benefits Solutions.

The gender pay-gap in India is more than China, which stood at 12.1 per cent. The pay gap in some of the nations like Brazil is at 26.2 per cent, France 14.1 per cent, Germany 16.8 per cent, the UK 23.8 per cent and the US 17.6 per cent.

“Pay parity is still a very real issue, but it's an issue that can be addressed if there is an ongoing effort to enable, encourage and select talented women to take on and thrive in challenging roles,’ said Reena Wahi, Client Partner, Korn Ferry Hay Group.