Chennai: Despite tall claims of being the most gender diverse industry, only 30 per cent of the total Indian IT workforce is women. An even more shocking finding was that there was gap of 29 per cent between the salaries paid to the male and female employees.
Presenting one of the astounding findings, the Monster Salary Index IT sector Report 2014, released at the Nasscom HR summit being held in Chennai, revealed that the gender pay gap in the IT industry is as high as 29 per cent.
While a male IT worker receives a gross salary of Rs 359.25 per hour, women IT staff receive Rs 254.04 per hour. Monster Salary Index is an initiative by Monster India along Paycheck.in and IIM-Ahmedabad.
This disparity possibly emerges from the fact that men get promoted to supervisory positions more often than women, Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster India said. “In India, marital status can be cited as a reason for lack of opportunities and growth avenues for a gender.
Also with the socio-cultural mindset, women often take up part-time jobs because they have to fulfill their primary responsibility of taking care of the household and children,” he added.
The tenure of an employee is another major factor governing the salary index. While an employee with less than three years of experience gets paid Rs 142.97 per hour, another with more than ten years of experience gets Rs 625.55 per hour, revealed MSI findings.
“Women find it harder to accumulate tenure due to family obligations and also when they try a re-entry after a break, they are often paid less,” said Mr Modi. Interestingly, the index revealed that women employed for a limited time get paid better than those with permanent contracts.
However, reiterating the stand of IT being the only sector where people go after talent without gender bias, Nasscom president Mr R. Chandrasekhar said, “Women at entry level, at lower salaries, constitute 63 per cent. As the statistics are skewed towards lower salaries, there seems a disparity in overall average.”
