Gender Discrimination and the Biased Indian Labour Market: Evidence from the National Sample Survey

Gupta, Pallavi and Kothe, Satyanarayan (2021): Gender Discrimination and the Biased Indian Labour Market: Evidence from the National Sample Survey.

Abstract

Gender gaps in wages are a reflection of inequality and discrimination. This exists across region, sector, type of work and other divisions. Discrimination, is a presence of inequalities between male and female workers with similar skills and in similar occupations. Therefore only understanding wage inequality may be looking at the problem partially. Using the Indian National Sample Survey, the paper examines the facets of gender-based wage inequality and discrimination in regular and casual workers. First, Theil index is calculated to interpret within and between groups inequalities. Then, a Three-fold Oaxaca decomposition method is utilised to divide the wage gaps between explained, unexplained and interaction components. Results show that even though the returns on education are higher for women than men at each level of education, females continue to earn less. Wage gaps largely attributed to unexplained components and more prominent in occupational divisions. Discrimination is greater in regular employment as compared to casual employment; higher in urban as compared to rural areas and gets worse at lower level of occupations. It is also observed that women workers are discriminated against on the basis of age; and gender inequalities are worse than social inequalities.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: gender inequality, Theil index, Threefold Oaxaca decomposition, wage discrimination. NSS (EUS) 68th round, NCO 2004, returns to education.
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I26 - Returns to Education; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J10 - General; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination

References

Allison, Paul D. (1978). Measures of Inequality. American Sociological Review. 43(6), 865–80.

Balakarushna P., Mishra Udaya S. & Pattanayak, U. (2019). Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Indian Urban Labour Market: An Assessment. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics. Springer. The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE). 62(3), 361-388.

Ben Jann. (2008). The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models, Stata Journal. 8(4), 453-479.

Bhalla, S., & R. Kaur. (2011). Labour Force Participation of Women in India: Some Facts, Some Queries. Working Paper No. 40, Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics.

Böhm, M., J., von Gaudecker, Hans-Martin, Schran & Felix. Occupation Growth, Skill Prices, and Wage Inequality. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12647.

Charles-Coll & Jorge A. (2011). Understanding Income Inequality: Concept, Causes and Measurement. International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences. 1(1), 17–28.

Chatterjee, U., R. Murgai, & M. Rama. (2015). Job Opportunities along the Rural–Urban Gradation and Female Labour Force Participation in India. Working Paper No.7412, World Bank, Policy Research.

Cunha, F., James J. Heckman, Lance L., & Dimitriy V. M. (2006). Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation. In Handbook of the Economics of Education, edited by E. Hanushek & F. Welch. 697–812. Amsterdam: North Holland.

Das, P. (2012). Wage inequality in India: Decomposition by sector, gender and activity status. Economic & Political Weekly. 47(50), 58- 64.

Dasgupta, S., & Verick, S. (eds.). (2016). Transformation of Women at Work in Asia: An Unfinished Development Agenda. ILO/SAGE. Geneva/New Delhi.

Deshpande, S & Deshpande, L.R. (1999). Gender based discrimination in the urban labour market. In Papola and Sharma (eds), 223-48.

Dolton, P. J. & Kidd, M. P. (1994). Occupational access and wage discrimination. Oxford Bulletin of Economic Statistics. 56, 457-474.

Esteve-Volart & Berta. (2004). Gender Discrimination and Growth: Theory and Evidence from India. STICERD - Development Economics Papers.

Kingdon, G. Gandhi. (1998). Does the labour market explain lower female schooling in India? The Journal of Development Studies. 35 (1), 39-65, DOI: 10.1080/00220389808422554

Goos, M., & Manning, A. (2007). Lousy and lovely jobs: The rising polarization of work in Britain. Rev. Econ. Stat. 89(1), 118–133.

Gurgand, M., Bourguignon, François, Fournier & Martin. (2007). Selection Bias Corrections Based on the Multinomial Logit Model. Monte-Carlo Comparisons. Journal of Economic Surveys. 21, 174-205. 10.2139/ssrn.555744.

ILO (2013). Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture (second edition) / International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO. International Labour Organization.

ILO (2013). Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture (second edition) / International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO. International Labour Organization.

International Labour Organization (2018). India Wage Report. ILO, New Delhi.

Jayadev, A., & Reddy, S. (2011). Inequalities and Identities. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.1162275.

Kannan, K.P., & G. Raveendran. (2012). Counting and Profiling the Missing Labour Force. Economic and Political Weekly. 47 (6), 77–80.

Kijima, Y. (2006). Why did wage inequality increase? Evidence from urban India 1983–99. Journal of Development Economics, 8 (1), 97–117.

Krishna, K. L., A. A. Erumban, & D. Kusumdas (2016). Structural Changes in Employment in India, 1980–2011. Working Paper No.262, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.

Kuriakose, F., & Kylasam I., D. (2020). Job Polarisation in India: Structural Causes and Policy Implications. Indian Journal of Labour Economics. 63, 247-266. DOI:10.1007/s41027-020-00216-7.

Lama, S. & Majumder, R. (2018). Gender inequality in wage and employment in Indian labour market. Journal of Academic Research in Economics. 10 (3), 482-500.

Leigh, A. (2007). How Closely Do Top Income Shares Track Other Measures of Inequality? 117 (524), F619–33.

Liao, T. (2016). THEILDECO: Stata module to produce refined Theil index decomposition by group and quantile. Statistical Software Components S458187, Boston College Department of Economics.

Louis, C. & Maria M. (2013). Exploring the public-private sector wage gap in European countries, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies. 2 (1), 1-53.

Madheswaran, S. & Attewell, P. (2007). Caste discrimination in the Indian urban labour market: Evidence from the National Sample Survey. Economic and Political Weekly. 42 (41), 4146–4153.

Madheswaran, S. & Shroff, S. (2000). Education, employment and earnings for scientific and technical workforce in India: Gender issues. Indian Journal of Labour Economics. 43(1), 121-37.

Mehrotra, S. (2020). Informal Employment Trends in the Indian Economy: Persistent informality, but growing positive development. Working Paper No. 254. International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Melly, B. (2005). Public–Private Sector Wage Differentials in Germany. Empirical Economics. 30, 505-520. DOI:10.1007/s00181-005-0251-y.

Mishra, L. (1999). Promotion, enforcement and supervision of equal remuneration act, 1976: Method followed by the Labour Inspection Service, the Work of Organisations Bringing Out Equal Pay Complaints and the Role of the Courts. Training Course on Equal Remuneration Convention No. 100, organised by ILO, New Delhi, June 28, 1999.

National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). 2014.Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, NSS Report No. 554(68/10/1), NSS 68th Round, July 2011– June 2012 (Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India).

National Statistical Survey Office. (July 2017 - June 2018). “Annual Report - Periodic Labor Force Survey”. New Delhi: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

Oaxaca, R. (1973). Male female differentials in urban labour markets. International Economic Review, 14, 693-709. Periodic Labour Force Survey. 2017–2018. Annual Report, (2019), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, National Statistical Office, Government of India.

Ramesh, C., & Srivastava, S. K. (2014). Changes in the Rural Labour Market and Their Implications for Agriculture. Economic and Political Weekly 49 (10): 47–54. Randall S. Brown; Marilyn Moon & Barbara S. Zoloth, (1980), Incorporating Occupational Attainment in Studies of Male-Female Earnings Differentials, Journal of Human Resources, 15, (1), 3-28.

Rustagi, P. (2005). Understanding gender inequalities in wages and income in India. The Indian Journal of Labour Economics. 48(2), 319-334.

Salvatori, A. The anatomy of job polarisation in the UK. J Labour Market Res 52, 8 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12651-018-0242-z

Srivastava, N., & Srivastava, R. (2010). Women, Work and Employment Outcomes in Rural India. Economic and Political Weekly 45 (28): 49–63.

Sundari, S. (2020) Structural Changes and Quality of Women’s Labour in India. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 63, 689–717.

Tagade, N; Kumar N, Thorat, A., & Sukhadeo. (2018). Wealth Ownership and Inequality in India: A Socio-religious Analysis. Journal of Inclusion Studies: https://doi.org/10.1177/2394481118808107

Thomas, J.J. (2012). India’s Labour Market during the 2000s: Surveying the Changes. Economic and Political Weekly 47 (51): 39–51.

Tim Liao, (2016). "THEILDECO: Stata module to produce refined Theil index decomposition by group and quantile," Statistical Software Components S458187, Boston College Department of Economics.

Verick, S. (2018). Female Labour Force Participation and Development. The Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) Germany, World of Labour 2018: 87v2.

Weele, I. T. (2013). The effects of CEO’s personality traits (Big 5) and a CEO’s external network on innovation performance in SMEs. Universiteit Twente, p. 37.