Gender Wage Gap in the Last Ten Years: A Case Study of India

This paper examines changes in the gender wage gap in India between the years 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, and analyses its determinants. Results of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition reveal that in the last ten years, the gender wage gap has decreased from 58.9% to 52.1%. In 1999, 35.56% of this gap was explained by differences in human capital endowments and job characteristics between men and women, and 60.44% of the gap was unexplained, or purely a result of gender discrimination. However, in 2009, the explained component decreased to 25.53% and the unexplained component increased to 74.47%. These results indicate that even after controlling for various explanatory variables, there is a gender wage gap in India which favors men – and that more than half of this gap is unexplained. It also proves that while the explained gap has decreased, the unexplained gap has increased. These results have important implications for policy-makers in India in terms of increasing educational opportunities for women, reducing social discrimination, reforming data collection methodologies, as well as increasing post-implementation accountability.