Women in India make on-average 16 pc less than men: Report

Women in India make on-average 16.1 per cent less than men, similar to the global average, as the percentage of the fairer sex in higher-paying roles is less, says a Korn Ferry report.

According to the Korn Ferry Gender Pay Index, women across the globe make on-average 16.1 per cent less than men. However, the pay gap becomes much smaller while analysing same job level, same company, same function.

Globally, while considering the same level at the same company, the gap further reduced to 1.5 per cent. And when the male and female employees were at the same level and the same company and worked in the same function, the average gap amounted to 0.5 per cent.

In India, when evaluating the same job level, the gap is 4 per cent, and when considering the same level at the same company, the gap fell to 0.4 per cent. When male and female employees at the same level and the same company worked in the same function, the gap fell to 0.2 per cent.

Researchers analysed information from Korn Ferry's pay database to create the Korn Ferry Gender Pay Index. The Index is an analysis 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.

Wesselkamper further noted that this pay gap issue can be remedied if organisations address pay parity across the organisation and continue to strive to increase the percentage of women in the best-paying parts of the labour market, including the most senior roles and functions such as engineering and other technical disciplines.

The gender pay-gap in India is more than China, which stood at 12.1 per cent. The pay gap in some of the representative nations like Brazil stood 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.