Equal titles, unequal pay: Gender pay hole widens in India’s tech nerve facilities
Girls in expertise have lengthy battled to earn the title, or to at the very least obtain recognition and acknowledgement within the so-called “males’s world”. Sure, they’ve grappled to earn a seat on the table- unshackling the biases, breaking stereotypes, and outperforming expectations. Nevertheless, India’s booming tech sector the place advantage is claimed to rule alternative is the brand new forex. One factor stays stubbornly unaffected: The unequal paycheck.
Beneath the shiny exterior of the floor lies a persistent rot: Girls, regardless of rising into boardrooms and main initiatives, proceed to be paid much less for equal and infrequently larger contributions.
A current research by TeamLease Digital has unearthed the depth and severity of this inequity. Analysing 13,000 contractual tech professionals throughout GCCs between 2020 and 2024, the report reveals a stark and rising gender pay hole that punishes girls extra as they climb larger. The numbers should not simply alarming, they’re a sober indicator of ingrained structural discrimination cloaked within the language of meritocracy.
Disparity deepens with expertise
This development signifies that ladies in tech GCCs should not simply underpaid within the preliminary days of career- their value is systematically sidelined from monetary development. The info, drawn from 13,000 contractual tech associates between 2020 and 2024, reveals a troubling structural bias. Girls aren’t simply hitting glass ceilings—they’re strolling tightropes below them.
The inequalities are much more jarring when examined sector by sector. Within the banking, monetary companies, and insurance coverage (BFSI) area, girls earn 26.3% lower than males—an appalling quantity that hardly improves even at senior ranges, the place the hole continues to be 23.8%. The life sciences and healthcare sectors fare no higher.
Right here, the general gender pay hole sits at a stunning 29.5%, with senior-level girls incomes 23.5% much less on common. Tech GCCs, comparatively higher, nonetheless mirror a 19% total hole. Even the power sector, touted for its progressive insurance policies, shows a 15% disparity.
Range on paper, not in paychecks
The company partitions are well-embellished on Girls’s Day, and paperwork are adorned with intensive insurance policies for feminine staff. Nevertheless, are they equally mirrored in salaries? Sadly, an emphatic no echoes the partitions of the tech world.
Whereas the gender pay hole stays extreme, GCCs seem like making modest progress in illustration. The proportion of girls in mid-level roles has risen to 13.68% in 2024 from 12.12% in 2023 in keeping with the report. Senior-level participation noticed a fair notable enhance—from 8.14% to 13.6% in the identical interval. However these numbers nonetheless fall far in need of parity.
A paradoxical state of affairs is portray the partitions of company: Girls are being promoted, however not being paid equitably. GCCs could also be diversifying their organisation charts, however compensation insurance policies stay caught in a regressive previous.
Geographical divide provides to the pressure
TeamLease’s city-wise evaluation highlights one other fault line. Girls in Tier 1 cities comprise almost 40% of the GCC workforce, in comparison with simply 23.36% in Tier 2 cities. The city benefit, nonetheless, comes at a price—larger strain, slower profession development, and little pay fairness.
The senior-level battle
Maybe probably the most startling is the general common senior-level pay hole throughout sectors: 16.4%. It’s a statistic that underscores the systemic rot. At the same time as girls climb the company ladder, their earnings stay anchored beneath their male counterparts.
The GCC mannequin has lengthy been celebrated for bringing world tech excellence to India. However the numbers paint a extra sobering image—of entrenched gender bias and an trade that also treats equality as a footnote relatively than a basis.
The GCC mannequin has lengthy been championed for bringing world tech excellence to India. However the numbers paint a grim image of entrenched gender bias and an trade that also treats equality as a footnote relatively than a basis.
Till the pay hole is closed and management alternatives are provided on equal footing, the discuss of range will stay simply that—discuss.
