Female employees of IT firms are paid up to 20 per cent less when compared to male employees, a phenomena that is attributed to the fact that more women don't take up higher designations, according to a new study.
While the hourly wage for an average male non-supervisor is around Rs. 255.32, female non-supervisors are paid on average around Rs. 206.28.
In the supervisor category, a male supervisor earns an hourly wage of around Rs. 461.89 while a female supervisor gets Rs. 375.29.
According to the newly released ‘Monster Salary Index India IT Sector Report 2014’ - which was put together by online job portal Monster, IIM-Ahmedabad and Paycheck.in — in both non-supervisor and supervisor categories, women earn about 18-20 per cent less than men.
The report points out that his gender pay gap could possibly result from factors such as women not being preferred for IT jobs that require night shifts, social-cultural reasons such as male employees refusing to work under women and that “many employers have preconceived notions about the job capabilities of women experience in the job.”
As a result of this, women are not preferred for promotions, and thus a sort of “crowding at the lower end of the occupational hierarchy” is seen.
“It is surprising to see that the most modern sector of India is not only predisposed to a certain gender, but is also paying lesser to women employees than their male counterparts…,” Monster India Managing Director Sanjay Modi told this correspondent on Wednesday.