Sex discrimination in Indian labor markets

The unfair wage advantage to males over females in the labor market for persons with post-secondary schooling in India is examined in this study. This is perhaps the first set of estimates on sex discrimination in the Indian labor market using the decomposition technique. Based on an all-India data set, namely the Degree Holders and Technical Personnel survey, gender-specific earnings functions are estimated and the wage gap between males and females is decomposed into productivity and discrimination components. About 67 to 77 percent of the male-female wage difference is found to be due to discrimination. Females with scientific and technical education face a higher rate of discrimination compared to their counter-parts with specialization in social sciences. Examining the sources of discrimination indicates that the labor market experience provides an advantage to males while education is favorable to females. The entry wage accounts for a substantial part of male-female wage difference.