Despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1976 to ensure equal pay for men and women for equal work, the gap has only widened
Posted on – Wed, 3/29/23 at 12:16pm
Despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1976 to ensure equal pay for men and women for equal work, the gap has only widened
Hyderabad: Despite a constitutional guarantee of equal pay for equal work and a ban on gender discrimination, the harsh reality is that women are paid far less than men in several fields. In fact, the gap between men and women has widened over the past decade. That’s a key takeaway from a recent report by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on gender equality across Indian states. The income effect, a key measure of wage parity, is affected to a greater extent by female labor force participation due to post-Covid lockdown migration from towns to villages. Although India’s labor force participation rate has been rising since 2017-18, women still lag behind men. In 2021-22, the proportion is 77.2% for men and 32.8% for women, a gap that has not improved over the years. A number of social factors, including poor access to education and gender discrimination in wages and opportunities in the workplace, contribute to this widening gap. The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1976 to ensure equal pay for men and women for equal work. However, more are observed in violations than in practice. Many jobs require employees to work irregular hours, such as overtime or night shifts, and women cannot work irregular hours for safety reasons. This can result in women not being promoted or being paid less than men.
Female labor force participation has been declining despite growth in India’s economy and working-age population. According to the World Bank, India has the lowest participation rate of women in the formal economy in the world—only parts of the Arab world are worse off. This is a worrying trend against the backdrop of rising crime against women and widespread gender discrimination. The pandemic has only worsened the situation, disproportionately affecting women, as most of them work in the informal sector, which is characterized by low-paying and precarious jobs, fluctuating incomes and a lack of strong social safety nets net. India ranks 143 out of 146 countries in terms of female labor force share and wage equality. With a population of more than 662 million women, India’s status has enormous global implications. Women continue to face many barriers to entering the labor market related to access, job choice, working conditions, employment security, wage equality and discrimination. As India aspires to become a global power, it must set an example and embark on a path of sustainable, gender-inclusive economic growth. Effective enforcement of existing laws on gender equality and improving training and development opportunities could be the way forward in closing the gender gap.
