Gender and caste-based wage discrimination in India: some recent evidence

Abstract

This paper examines gender and social groups wage discrimination in India using a nationally representative survey. We examine the wage gaps between different sub-groups of population separately in the rural and urban sectors using the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. To account for possibility of the sample selection bias, the Heckman correction model is employed. We find a large wage differential between gender groups and between different social groups. The decomposition analysis reveals that the wage differential between males and females can largely be attributed to discrimination in the labor market. Nevertheless, in case of social groups this gap is mostly driven by differences in endowments.