Gender wage discrimination in the rural market of India

It cannot be denied that female workers are generally paid lower wages than male workers in the work sphere despite holding the same position of responsibility. These wage differentials have been a subject of a large volume of research. The existing literature extends several explanations for persistence of the wage differences among males and females, like, human capital theory, compensating differentials, search models and discrimination. In this paper an attempt has been made to look at the extent to which differences in the labour market characteristics are responsible for explaining gender wage gaps among regular and casual workers in Rural India. The study employs the unit level records from the National Sample Survey, Employment and Unemployment Schedule for 66th round(2009–10). The results reveal the persistence of discrimination against women in the rural labour market in India. Societal and cultural norms are at the core in explaining such differences. Females because of their familial ties and household responsibilities are generally perceived to be less stable in job market than men. Employers attaches a very high probability of a women dropping from the labour market at some certain age and thus discriminates against women as they enter labour market.