Gender Pay Gap in India: A Reality and the Way Forward—An Empirical Approach Using Quantile Regression Technique

Abstract

There is a growing body of empirical work on gender studies that mostly focus on the gender-wise representation of individuals in different sectors. One such study is the wage gap attributed to gender. In this article, we have tried to focus on a detailed study of the gender wage gap in the Indian context. The study was carried out on the most recent Employment–Unemployment Survey carried out by NSS for the year 2012. The study was based on the personal characteristics as well as the characteristics of the job undertaken by the employees. Ordinary least square regression and linear quartile regression model were used for analysis. In our study we have come up with a few interesting determinants of wage inequality based mostly on the personal traits. For women, personal characteristic like age was highly significant determinant of wage whereas in case of men more industry specific determinants were significant. JEL Classifications: C01, C10, J16, J31