Increasing Dualism in Indian Wage Labour Market

Abstract

The patterns of globalization and changes in technology have profound impact on status of labour. The labour market in developing countries like India has been multifaceted—influenced by regional diversity, differences in rural/urban locations, status of workers, education and skill level, caste and religion, industry and institutional basis of labour regulation, etc. In India, the share of regular job holders (often considered as better jobs) has increased in this millennium. These increments in regular jobs are mostly of contractual or informal types, which share several common characteristics with casual workers. The growing trend is narrowing of differences between regular and casual jobs, which may be due to faster growth of casual wages compared to regular. This may be originating from increasing demand of casual work in non-agricultural activities particularly in the construction sector. In addition, the increasing incidence of migration for work both short-term and long-run may have also led to narrowing the wage differential between regular and casual labour. The wage labour market is becoming dichotomous—with two poles, one with high end well paid regular workers and another with low paid informal regular/contractual/casual workers. In this context, there is need to understand how and what factors are responsible for this emerging dichotomy in Indian wage labour market. This paper will unravel the factors and attempt to understand the phenomenon through the latest available data and information.